[Movie] Enola Holmes 3 - Finish Line

Let's be honest, I was in for the third movie blues.... I mean!!!! this is how things work when a franchise arrives at a finish line, when everyone is getting regular cash, when the jokes get flabby, when the mystery is understated and when the reward is underwhelming. But most of the time that's what happens in movie three. But that's not what has happened here. This could be the strongest of the three and I wasn't expecting it at all.

_{Image Credit}

Just a quick catch-up for those who haven't followed the series: For the first time, Enola will solve real cases with Sherlock and Watson without always having to be the one to get a seat at the table. Good. About time. Her performances in the two movies she had already made established her rightful place in this world, and it's a feeling of satisfaction that the previous movies never achieved in the same way. Except right when she's meant to be settling into that new dynamic, life gets thrown a wrench in she's getting engaged to Tewkesbury, there's a wedding in Malta in the works, and then Sherlock gets kidnapped, bringing her a case that's mired in stolen treasures and secrets that go deeper than anyone anticipated. Now she has a missing brother, a bridal dress in the closet and a mystery growing bigger as she digs deeper. That's a lot to carry all at once and on paper that sounds like it could be a mess. It's not. It works, for the most part, because for once, her personal life and her detective life aren't on two separate tracks as they were in the first two movies. They collide, head-on, all the time and it is this collision that gives this one its teeth

_{Image Credit}

Millie Bobby Brown is just.... really good in this. Much improved from the first two, and I'm not only talking about the first one I liked, but the second as well. The confidence now comes off of her. Talking to the camera is the signature device of this franchise, and would have been easy to run out of gas by the third time around. It's a dangerous game to play going back and forth so much, and the wink ends up being less winning than appealing. However, she still sells it here better than ever. I burst out laughing at some of those off-camera moments, wondering how it just slipped into my lap like that.

I don't think you'd expect to see Cavill's Sherlock in as much use as the marketing would suggest, but it works nicely for the film. If he's there, he's as big of a presence as he was in the previous movies... just a few moments of screen time are enough to make him memorable, and this film provides him with just a few minutes. Rebecca Hall, on the other hand, is having an absolute blast as Eudoria. Her presence on screen gives each and every scene a new lease on life; sarcastic, a bit deranged, and hilariously divert. But Sharon Duncan-Brewster as this film's lead antagonist isn't just a genuinely fun sense of menace, she's also a genuine menace. The mystery plot wanted the villain to be just as much as the stakes of “stolen treasures and buried family secrets” and she is just that kind of presence.

_{Image Credit}

The pacing here is definitely the thinnest of the three, but that was a good thing. Though not fatal, both films were a bit meandering in the middle if you noticed the length of time. This one moves. No dragging, no scenes that serve as filler before the next beat in the story. Each sequence comes across as it is working for its position. The change of setting to Malta is also a big help sun-baked coastal streets and bright Mediterranean light, rather than the foggy, grey London setting of the earlier films that make the whole thing look entirely different from all the other sequels that make this kind of franchise. It's not "London again, but with a different mystery" it feels like it's its own thing.

But the one thing I always have to go back to is the film's portrayal of the marriage versus ambition dilemma in Enola. It's a simple mistake to make. There are so many stories that would do this in this genre that it would seem like fluffy romance to make tension. But rather, this film sits with her fear really, sits with her fear of losing her sense of self to a role she didn't wholly select for herself, one in which she loves someone inside. And all of that without ever slowing down the story of the mystery to accommodate it. Yes, the emotional beats, and the case progression work together, not against one another, which is a hard one to get right, and that's what got me, after the credits, to remember this one.

_{Image Credit}

Is it a good film? ABSOLUTELY, there are two or three minor characters who aren't given nearly as much to do, and there is a solution to the central mystery that rushes. But those are petty criticisms Compared to how many things this film gets right.

I consider this one to be more Sharp, more Funny and more Confident than anything else in this trilogy. If this is it, it's a really great send-off.

Rating: 85/100

---

Originally posted through scrobble.life/movies.