‘Enola Holmes 3’ Review: Millie Bobby Brown Returns in a Frisky and Grown-Up Installment from ‘Adolescence’ Helmer Philip Barantini

It’s been a decent summer so far for plucky British gumshoes. After the cozily pastoral charms of the delightful whodunit “Sheep Detectives” and its unusual crime-stoppers, we get the winsome “Enola Holmes 3,” the latest installment of the Netflix mystery franchise that follows the sleuthing escapades of Sherlock’s little sister. Enola is no longer a wide-eyed, inexperienced heroine — she’s made a good enough name for herself as an insightful, observant detective who can look at any inconspicuous scene for a brief moment and promptly spot at least half a dozen fishy peculiarities.

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Nor is she alone, regardless of her purposely liberated name might suggest when read backwards. Once again endearingly portrayed by “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown, Enola enters the film in a lavish bridal gown on top of a picturesque Maltese hill, about to get married to the love of her life: Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), who’s been her partner in crime and adventure since they were fellow runaways in the first movie.

“Great stories begin with a wedding,” Enola muses in her peppy voiceover, a signature ingredient of the franchise that has come to define much of its upbeat tone, and also exemplifies the Nancy Springer book series that the movies are based on. Picking up directing duties from Harry Bradbeer and working with a script by returning writer Jack Thorne, “Adolescence” maestro Philip Barantini smartly preserves the previous films’ fast-paced, feather-light qualities with witty visual effects and zippy editing where things sharply snap into place like tangible puzzle pieces.

But he also infuses the new machinations with sophisticated camera moves, including the long takes that famously powered much of “Adolescence.” The result is a chapter that splits the difference between something grown-up and playfully youthful, signaling a series thoughtfully maturing alongside its core audience: young viewers who have been looking up to Brown’s Enola since 2020.

Well, let’s get back to the wedding, shall we? Sadly, the ceremony proves to be a short-lived one: Enola realizes that her nuptials will have to wait until she solves another crime that she has no choice but shoulder. It’s undoubtedly the most personal one yet, since it involves the abduction of her hard-nosed brother Sherlock (Henry Cavill). Suspicious of the environs throughout the wedding and unsure of his sister’s choices to conform to matrimonial tradition, Sherlock is already displeased before he abruptly disappears, with Enola’s future mother-in-law.

In truth, it’s a far-fetched scenario for someone as experienced as Sherlock to fall victim to a kidnapping just like that, no matter how dedicatedly the movie tries to sell that probability. But when Enola confidently swans around the crime scene, uncovers Morse-coded fingerprints on a mirror in front of a dumbfounded Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel), and hops from one hidden clue to the next in several satisfying scenes, you forgive the script’s overarching shortcomings, especially with the gorgeous Malta and its sparkly blue waters as a backdrop.

Then again, some of the timely real-world references (like the suffrage movement and the fight for workers’ rights) that made the last two films feel so vital are missed here. Plotlines including Maltese freedom fighters and Dr. Watson’s past in the Anglo-Afghan Wars feel like polite afterthoughts behind Enola’s personal and familial reconciliation, especially when her headstrong mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter, fantastic as usual) reemerges with her cynical witticisms.

In the end, the story is more about Enola’s own future and her emotional journey, as she unwittingly finds a late opportunity to deal with those pre-wedding jitters. Is she doing the right thing, marrying the right person, choosing the kind of future she wants for herself? The mystery that surrounds these existential queries feels meager in comparison: What could possibly compete with the idealistic headspace of a young woman, dressed with authoritative flair like a Victorian Annie Hall, contemplating the unknown path in front of her?

Still, “Enola Holmes 3” makes it worth our while, especially when fiery villain Moriarty (a terrific Sharon Duncan-Brewster) returns in earnest in a punishing scheme, the details of which would be unfair to spoil. In physically and emotionally demanding fight and chase sequences, Duncan-Brewster and Brown flex their muscles and spirits, playing two evenly matched opponents for the ages, with real stakes and wounds, across well-choreographed action sequences. Elsewhere, “Enola Holmes” presents its grandest act of rebellion by refusing to succumb to empty “you-go-girl” feminism, where strong heroines are often defined only by their physical strength. Needless to say Enola Holmes, Sherlock’s absolute intellectual equal, has plenty of that. But she has a proudly romantic heart too, one she knows she doesn’t have to compromise to become anything she wants.