ENOLA HOLMES 2
A lively mystery for older children and adults, with worldview concerns.
Should You Watch It?
ENOLA HOLMES 2 is a fun, exciting mystery adventure with delightful performances and enough nods to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories to satisfy most fans. It also gives you strong moral content: exposing corruption, protecting the weak, doing the right thing, and requiring the wealthy and powerful to help their communities.
The movie’s positive elements are complicated by strong violence, feminist references, revisionist history, and a light Romantic worldview. Its casting and political assumptions may also distract viewers who want a more historically grounded story. Still, one scene offers positive, winsome metaphorical references to the Holy Trinity and Jesus Christ.
If your family includes older children who can handle the violence and discuss the worldview concerns, this is worth watching; younger children should choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESEnola Holmes wants to be taken seriously as a detective. When a young girl named Bessie asks her to find a missing young woman from a matchstick factory, Enola accepts her first case.
Her investigation leads from the factory’s exploited workers toward the highest levels of power. Meanwhile, her brother Sherlock is working on a case that turns out to be connected to hers. Soon, Enola must solve the mystery while trying to clear her own name.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is an especially entertaining film. ENOLA HOLMES 2 is an exciting, fun mystery adventure that pays wonderful homage to Sherlock Holmes. The story offers enough connections to the Arthur Conan Doyle mysteries to satisfy all but the most demanding fan.
Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill both give wonderful performances as Enola and Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock is presented as a more athletic version of the iconic detective. The movie’s moral elements and delightful Christian metaphorical scene add substance to its entertainment value.
The Worldview
ENOLA HOLMES 2 presents a light Romantic, liberal worldview centered on reforming corruption in Victorian England. It condemns a corrupt businessman and government official who harm female workers at a match factory, and it celebrates exposing wrongdoing, protecting the weak, doing what is right, and noblesse oblige—the responsibility of the wealthy and powerful to help their communities.
The film also contains strong feminist elements, especially through Enola’s mother, who is portrayed as more radical than most suffragette activists of her time. Its history is revisionist in treating social reform as exclusively a liberal, leftist cause, while the source review notes that conservative and free-market theory can also support reforms and correction of severe injustices. The film’s implied criticism of big-government corruption is a positive counterpoint.
The casting of actors of African descent in Victorian England, presented as a historically white culture in the source review, may also distract viewers. The movie softens its feminist emphasis through Enola’s clean, lovable romance with a young upper-class reformer. It further includes a positive, somewhat metaphorical scene referring to the Holy Trinity and Jesus Christ.
The film’s call to protect the weak aligns with Scripture’s concern for justice: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Light Romantic, liberal worldview overall calls for reform in a corrupt part of the system in Victorian England, where female workers at a match factory are being damaged by a corrupt businessman working with a corrupt government official, some politically correct woke casting inserting black characters into what is historically a system with only white people running it and in it, the woke casting is part of the movie’s revisionist history which sees political reform as being only a liberal, leftist cause when it’s a fact that conservative and free market political theory allow for economic and political reforms as well as noblisse oblige within the conservative, free market system, movie has strong, anachronistic feminist elements that side with the title character’s mother who is a more radical leftist than most of the suffragette activists of the time, but the liberal, left-leaning worldview is mitigated by some strong moral elements that celebrate doing the right thing, noblisse oblige, stopping a wicked plan developed by a corrupt government official and a corrupt businessman, plus there’s a scene with overt Christian content that refers to the Holy Trinity and Jesus in a positive, somewhat metaphorical, delightful way
Foul Language
Two “h” wrds and two light profanities
Violence
Some strong and light violence includes a few deaths and murders, a woman is shown with a bloody knife through her stomach, two major fight scenes involving the title character and villains, a character falls to his death, gunshots, knife fights, a sword fight, explosions, threats to a young girl and a young woman with knives held to their throat, angry villain grabs title character’s throat in an interrogation, a chase scene between three women in one carriage and a carriage full of policemen
Sex
There’s an implication in a lengthy scene at an upper class ball in London that the women and men give visual signals to one another that express a romantic and other sexual interests that are frowned upon in polite society, a young couple kisses, a flashback shows another couple embracing on a couch, there’s some flirting, it is said that a missing young woman working at a match factory also worked as a dancer in a musical hall where she met a high class guy (the manager suggests it was an immoral dirty affair, but he turns out to be wrong), and the title character twice kisses her love interest (they tell each other they love one another), but their budding romance is depicted in a very clean, lovable way
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
Some alcohol use and the title character stumbles upon her elder brother, Sherlock Holmes, who appears to be drunk while investigating a case in a tavern
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Brief pipe smoking and references to cigar smoking, but no drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Dysfunctional family portrayal, corruption and class prejudice.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Enola’s first case requires her to protect vulnerable workers and uncover corruption. What does Scripture require of people who see injustice?
Micah 6:8 · Proverbs 31:8–9The film presents noblesse oblige as a responsibility of the wealthy and powerful. How can your family use its resources to help people in need?
Luke 12:48 · James 2:15–16The story celebrates doing the right thing when powerful people are acting corruptly. When is it difficult to stand for truth, and how can God strengthen us?
Ephesians 6:13–14 · Proverbs 28:1The movie includes positive metaphorical references to the Holy Trinity and Jesus. What does Scripture teach about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
Matthew 28:19 · 2 Corinthians 13:14The Final Word
ENOLA HOLMES 2 is a lively, well-performed mystery with strong moral content and a positive Christian metaphor. Its violence and political and feminist elements call for discernment, especially with younger viewers. For older children and adults who can discuss those concerns, it is WORTH THE TRIP — OLDER CHILDREN AND ADULTS.
