OF COURSE, she doesn’t yet have the contact book and reputation of her older brother, and many won’t take her seriously thanks to her age and gender, but nonetheless we join Millie Bobby Brown’s Enola in Enola Holmes 2 as she receives her first case.
Enola is approached by a young working class girl who has lost her sister, last seen at the match factory where she – and lots of other girls like her – worked.
Soon enough, it becomes clear that the case bestowed on Enola is much bigger than one missing girl – it’s a tale set amidst the Match Girls’ Strike of 1888, one of the most significant events in the evolution of workers’ rights, and women’s empowerment.
“The first film had been set around the Great Reform Act, the battle for the vote,” explains director Harry Bradbeer, “so we wanted to have another historical event that was relevant.
“Having the first film being about the constitution, we wanted the next film to be about industry, and the struggle and the exploitation of working rights.
“We knew that Enola was going to travel into London, that was where we left her, and that she was going to find a dirty and a more difficult world. And I love the idea of her interacting with girls of her own age, but from a completely different background.”
Thus, the idea for setting the film around the Match Girls’ Strike was born, because the strike was “a story of sisterhood, and of bravery, and the need to collaborate”.
“At the end of it, you have a strike which involved women gathering together and finding the courage to stand side by side, and risk their livelihoods for a better future,” says Bradbeer, who’s also known for his work on Killing Eve and Fleabag.
“That felt like a natural progression of the suffragette and emancipation story we told in the first.”
For star and producer Millie Bobby Brown, returning to the role of Enola was “really easy” because, she says, “we are both very similar – quite dry and brutally honest … Enola feels like I’m coming back to a place of normality and consistency”.
“I think we also both learn a lot from each other,” the 18-year-old Stranger Things star adds.
“It becomes a fun part of my job because I can implement flaws that I think are flaws in my personality and put that into her. I can also put things that I think are good about me.
“I really like making Enola quite emotional, but headstrong as well, and can detach when she needs to, which is a strength that I have.
“So I love mixing the both of us together. I think we’re both very similar and it makes it very easy.”
Henry Cavill, who has just announced his return as Superman, reprises the role of Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes 2. Audiences are once again treated to a more emotional portrayal of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character, as the sequel digs deeper underneath the skin of the detective and his budding professional relationship with his younger sister.
“For me, it was a joy to come back,” says Cavill (39).
“I’ve always approached Sherlock as a support character for Enola’s story and for Millie’s performance. In the first movie, we definitely have Sherlock being the wiser of the two and more of the guide, and in this second movie the roles are reversed.
“And I like the way that’s shown, it’s not shown in an unrealistic way. Very often the younger siblings can be the wiser of a pair.”
The biggest thing the fiercely independent Sherlock learns in the sequel, Cavill says, is “that he doesn’t have to do everything all by himself … as much as he may be capable of it”.
Enola Holmes 2 sees the blossoming of Enola’s romance with the Viscount Tewkesbury, played by Louis Partridge, who was pivotal in passing the Reform Act in the first film. Refreshingly, the romance remains a subplot, never detracting from Enola’s work as a detective or her heroism in the story.
“It’s easy for her to say, well, I don’t need a man, and leave it; the fact is that whatever our strengths and ambitions, we are still prone to love,” says Bradbeer.
“Most of us, we still want to make connections. And the toughest thing is to be able to have a relationship and still keep your own individual identity, power, self assurance. So that was the challenge. It was just a question of doing it without compromising our themes and our principles.”
“In many romance films, the man or the woman is searching for a partner, they find that partner and all of a sudden the character arcs and the romance is the real pivotal moment of the film,” adds Brown.
“But really, in this film, in the way that Harry directed and wrote it and made it happen, and the way Louis performed it, is that really Tewkesbury is an addition to Enola’s life, but doesn’t change the part of the story.
“I think that’s a really important message to show girls, that you can have allies along your journey, you could have romantic interests, you can have platonic interests. But either way, you will go on this journey and path on your own.”
This sequel is permeated with the theme of sisterhood and of women rising up against injustice, which is both inspiring and, Brown says, a pertinent reminder of how women across the world are still facing a fight for their rights.
“Women have been fighting for their rights, their equal rights, their workers’ rights,” the star says.
“We don’t realise how much women do: they’re mothers, they’re wives, they’re homemakers, they also have dreams and ambitions. And luckily, in this day and age, we get to have opportunities that are far better than the 1800s.
“But we still struggle with them. There are still stigmas and standards and hurdles that we must leap.
“I think it’s really important to remember that we can find camaraderie within each other, a kindred spirit that we can connect with, and sisterhood – which is the message of the film, I think.
“Meaningful stories like that can reach broader audiences, especially with Netflix, and to be able to be a part of that is a dream come true.”
Enola Holmes 2 is on Netflix now.
