Enola Holmes 3 Review: Charming but Flawed

I sat down for Enola Holmes 3 expecting the same breezy, charming ride the first two gave me, and honestly? I got about 70% of that. Let me actually walk through what worked for me and what didn't, because it's not as simple as "good" or "bad."

The storyline: fun, but it loses its grip halfway through

The setup pulled me in immediately — Enola's about to marry Tewkesbury, life finally feels settled, and then Sherlock gets kidnapped and pulls her right back into the chaos she can never quite stay away from. That's a great hook. I was leaning in.

Where it lost me a little was the middle stretch in Malta. The mystery has some genuinely clever beats, I won't pretend it doesn't, but a couple of the reveals felt like they arrived because the plot needed them to, not because the story earned them. I found myself going "wait, how did she connect that so fast" more than once, which never happened in the first two films.

Honestly, I think the story could've trusted its slower moments more. The first two Enola Holmes films were fast, but they were fast because every scene was doing something. This one is fast in a way that sometimes feels like it's skipping steps instead of building them.

The acting: Millie Bobby Brown is genuinely the whole show

This part I have zero complaints about. Brown is completely in her element as Enola — funny, warm, sharp, and she sells the fourth-wall-breaking bits so naturally that it never feels like a gimmick, even three movies in. Every time the movie felt like it was losing momentum, she'd have a scene that pulled me right back.

Henry Cavill's Sherlock continues to be a fun, understated presence, and I liked how his relationship with Enola has actually grown across the films instead of staying static. Helena Bonham Carter, as always, is a delight the moment she's on screen — I genuinely wanted more of her.

The romance: sweet, but underused

The Enola-Tewkesbury relationship is one of my favorite parts of this franchise, and I wanted more of it here. It's sweet when it's on screen, Louis Partridge and Brown have real chemistry, but the movie is so busy with the mystery plot that their relationship almost feels like a subplot squeezed into the edges rather than something the story is actually invested in. Given they're literally getting married in this one, I expected it to carry more emotional weight than it did.

The comedy: still a highlight

The humor genuinely holds up. The fourth-wall asides are still funny, and there's a warmth to the comedic timing that keeps the film from ever feeling heavy, even when the plot gets darker than the first two films went. This is probably the aspect of the franchise's DNA that survived the directing change most intact.

What I'd actually change

If I could tweak one thing, it'd be the pacing of the back half. I think giving the Tewkesbury relationship one or two more quiet scenes, even at the cost of trimming a chase sequence, would've made the wedding stakes land harder emotionally. Right now the movie assumes we care because we remember caring in the last film, instead of making us feel it fresh in this one.

So, is it worth watching?

Yes, I'd still say watch it, especially if you already love this cast. It's not as tightly written as the first two, and the mystery doesn't hold together quite as well under scrutiny, but Brown alone makes it worth the two hours, and there's enough charm and comedy here that I don't regret watching it. I just walked away wishing the story trusted itself a little more instead of rushing to the next twist.

Something else to watch after this

If what you actually wanted from Enola Holmes 3 was a tighter mystery with an ending that really lands, our movie recommendation quiz can point you toward something that fits that mood better. We've also written about movies with a genuinely satisfying ending if that's the itch this one didn't quite scratch for you either.