I still remember how, upon firing up an advanced screener for the Netflix movie “Enola Holmes” in September 2020, it immediately jumped out to me that the film’s production values were significantly higher than that of the average streaming release. (After all, I was, like many of you, watching A LOT of streaming fare in 2020.)

I was far from surprised to learn the film originally was destined for theaters, the pandemic leading to Warner Bros. Pictures unloading the project — an adaptation of the first book in the series by Nancy Springer about Sherlock Holmes’ sister and fellow detective with an unusual first name — to Netflix. It was a hit with both critics and viewers, as was its 2022 sequel, “Enola Holmes 2.”

It’s nice to see money is still being spent on the franchise, as the reasonably enjoyable “Enola Holmes 3”— debuting on Netflix on this holiday week — looks positively pricey thanks to on-location shoot filming and extras aplenty.

Millie Bobby Brown is front and center again as Enola, of course. The young actor most synonymous with the hugely popular Netflix series “Stranger Things” continues to seem more comfortable in the skin of this English sleuth than in other characters, including Eleven in the later seasons of “Things.” She’s entirely charming as the fourth wall-breaking, whip-smart mystery solver.

Enola is proud to have finally joined “the pantheon of great Victorian detectives” alongside her brother (Henry Cavill).

“He helps those with means,” she says in the movie's regularly occurring narration, “and I help those with needs.”

It is the mystery at the center of “Enola Holmes 3” that sets it a tick behind the first two films in terms of quality, this one built around yet another kidnapping — well, a pair of them eventually. As with the second installment, this endeavor boasts an original story by series screenwriter Jack Thorne, with franchise newcomer Philip Barantini handling the directing duties.

After the film’s opening minutes, involving a hooded figure in prison presented with a proposition, the first mystery is why Enola isn’t at her own wedding — a fancy affair in the beautiful surroundings of Malta. Turns out it’s merely a pair of cold feet, the independent woman having second thoughts about marrying her beloved Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), whom she met during the events of the first film.

Soon, though, she’s en route to the church via horse and carriage, Enola climbing onto the roof and almost shooting the head off Sherlock’s trusty assistant, Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel), mistaking the masked man on horse as a would-be attacker. In actuality, Watson was pursuing her to deliver the highly troubling news that her brother is missing. (The good doctor was wearing a handkerchief over the lower part of his face to protect against dust.)

Now the game is afoot, with Enola working a trail of clues in an attempt to find Sherlock — “a Holmes does not disappear without leaving clues for a Holmes,” she proclaims — who is with her in her mind, nudging her to ask the right questions.

The plot thickens when another person is kidnapped, and Enola encounters familiar folks, such as her adoring but frustrating outlaw-with-a-cause mother, Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), and the devious and vengeful Moriarty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster).

Simply put, “Enola Holmes 3” loses some steam as Thorne (“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” "Wonder”) and Barantini — who helmed all the episodes of the engrossing and award-winning one-shot drama series “Adolescence” — work to juggle the romance between Enola and the persistently patient Tewkesbury and the central mystery. The latter eventually ties to a decades-old misdeed, but it’s just not captivating to the degree it needs to be.

As much as I enjoy the work of Brown here — she’s delightful in a flashback sequence as she turns to the camera during her would-be husband’s proposal to tell the viewer that she, too, is surprised to learn the man she consistently calls “Tewkesbury” has a first name — I’m again wishing for a bit more of Cavill. It’s appropriate that he’s a secondary figure, of course — there are plenty of Sherlock-centric products to be consumed, and these are Enola’s story — but there’s something about the former Superman actor’s take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s enduring character that is particularly potent. In this film, his Sherlock is barely short of appalled that his sister is, as he sees it, about to throw away her freedom for the life of a wife.

Netflix has yet to announce a fourth “Enola Holmes,” but we don’t think there’s much mystery as to whether the streamer will move forward with the franchise. And it should — for as long as Brown is game.

———

‘ENOLA HOLMES 3’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for some violence)

Running time: 1:45

How to watch: Netflix

———

©2026 The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio). Visit The News-Herald (Willoughby, Ohio) at www.news-herald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.