Film Review · Netflix · July 2026

Enola Holmes 3 Review:
Malta, Moriarty, and a Mystery
That Almost Gets There

Millie Bobby Brown’s third turn as the detective who outsmarts everyone is as charming as ever. The mystery, unfortunately, is not quite up to her level.

Streaming: NetflixRelease: July 1, 2026Runtime: 1 hr 45 minRating: PG-13Director: Philip BarantiniSetting: Malta, 1886

Our Rating: 3 / 5Rotten Tomatoes: 73%Metacritic: 60 / 100Genre: Mystery · Adventure · Period Drama

Enola Holmes 3 is the cinematic equivalent of a breezy holiday read — pleasant, diverting, occasionally gorgeous to look at, and gone from your memory before the week is out. That is not quite a criticism. But for a franchise that once felt genuinely alive with possibility, it is a mild disappointment.

Six years have passed since the world first met Enola Holmes on Netflix in 2020. That film arrived with a bolt of energy that felt genuinely new: a Victorian-era mystery with a protagonist who broke the fourth wall, refused corsets, and solved problems the way a person actually thinks rather than the way a genre usually demands. It became one of Netflix’s most-watched original films ever — 76 million households in the first four weeks. Enola Holmes 2 built on it. Enola Holmes 3, which dropped globally on July 1, 2026, is a sunnier, looser, more romantic adventure that delivers on charm while running slightly low on the mystery that should be its engine.

Millie Bobby Brown is, as always, the reason to watch. The film around her, however, is a slightly mixed bag — and the mixed bag is more visible now that a new director has taken the wheel.

📋 Film at a Glance

Director

Philip Barantini

Screenwriter

Jack Thorne

Based On

Original story (inspired by Nancy Springer’s novels)

Music

Aaron May & David Ridley

Filming Locations

Shepperton Studios, UK + Malta (Valletta, Mdina)

Production

Legendary Entertainment / PCMA Productions

Time Period

1886 — Malta under British colonial rule

Rating

PG-13 (some violence)

01

The Story: Wedding Bells and Kidnapped Brothers

The film opens in Malta in 1886. Enola and Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) have travelled to the island for their wedding — a ceremony planned at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Valletta, chosen because Tewkesbury’s late father served here during the British occupation. Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel) have come along, and their mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) has made the crossing too. It should be, in theory, the happiest occasion of Enola’s young life.

But Enola is already having doubts. The film’s most genuinely interesting thread is an internal one: she wonders whether marriage — even to a man she loves, even in 1886 — means surrendering the name and the identity she has fought so hard to build. Enola Tewkesbury does not have the same ring as Enola Holmes. That particular anxiety is real, rooted, and relatable across centuries. The film handles it with more care than you might expect from a PG-13 adventure.

Then Sherlock disappears. A dying Maltese soldier murmurs what sounds like a name. A woman in an expensive dress is shot in the street. And at the centre of it all is Moriarty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster), operating under the alias Professor Adeline Rathe, having escaped custody since Enola Holmes 2. The mystery, which intersects with a decades-old injustice involving looted Afghan gold and the violence of British colonial rule in Malta, has admirable thematic ambitions. But the execution is, as several critics noted, more tangled than thrilling — packed with plot threads that do not always connect as cleanly as a mystery should.

“Adventure chases detective Enola Holmes to Malta, where personal and professional dreams collide on a case more tangled and treacherous than any she has faced before.” — Official Netflix logline

02

Millie Bobby Brown: Still the Best Thing Here

Let me be direct about this: Millie Bobby Brown at 21 is a substantially more accomplished screen presence than Millie Bobby Brown at 16, and Enola Holmes 3 is the best evidence of that evolution the franchise has produced. The Hollywood Reporter noted that she has developed a “newfound steeliness and steadily increasing comic chops” — and that is accurate. There is a confidence to her physical comedy in this film, a precision to the fourth-wall asides, a timing that was always good but is now genuinely sharp. She carries the film’s emotional weight with ease, particularly in the scenes where Enola genuinely wrestles with what marriage means for who she has become.

Louis Partridge as Tewkesbury continues to be an ideal foil — charming, slightly hapless, sincerely devoted, and wise enough to love Enola without trying to contain her. Their chemistry is one of the franchise’s most reliable pleasures, and the film leans into it more than either previous instalment. The romantic material lands well precisely because both actors play it with real warmth rather than genre-obligation sweetness.

Himesh Patel as Dr. Watson is a genuine addition to this world. He brings a wry, understated quality that gives the film a new comic register, and his dynamic with Brown works beautifully in the scenes where they are effectively co-detectives filling in for the absent Sherlock. Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria is again reliably entertaining — effortlessly sardonic, reliably scene-stealing in every moment she is given.

The film’s weakest casting choice is more structural than personal. Henry Cavill’s Sherlock appears for roughly six cumulative minutes — a result of what appears to be scheduling limitations — and his absence from the main investigation removes an energy source the story clearly needed. Sharon Duncan-Brewster’s Moriarty, meanwhile, is written as broadly as the role allows. She is serviceable as a villain but never quite menacing. The sense that she is a genuinely dangerous adversary never fully lands.

03

Full Cast

04

The Director Change: What Philip Barantini Brings and What He Loses

This is the first Enola Holmes film not directed by Harry Bradbeer, who helmed both previous instalments and gave the series its distinctive visual energy — the breathless forward momentum, the frame-breaking addresses to camera, the way movement and wit felt like extensions of the same personality. Bradbeer’s style was not flashy in the conventional sense; it was precisely calibrated to how Enola thinks.

Philip Barantini is a genuinely talented filmmaker. His work on Adolescence — the recent Netflix one-take drama — demonstrated a formidable command of tension and unbroken real-time pressure. The problem is that those skills do not map neatly onto what Enola Holmes needs. Where Bradbeer made Enola’s world feel kinetic, Barantini’s approach is more measured, more grounded, occasionally more beautiful — Malta is strikingly filmed — but also flatter in its rhythms. The film lacks the spark that made the original feel genuinely fresh.

The colonial history subplot — Jack Thorne has spoken about wanting to address British imperial violence in Malta — is the film’s most genuinely ambitious element and arguably its strongest. The Mikiel Mizzi character and the stolen Afghan gold thread give the mystery a moral seriousness that elevates it beyond the whodunit framework. Thorne has done this in both previous films: suffragette politics in EH1, the Matchgirls’ Strike in EH2. The pattern is admirable. Here it works better than the central mystery mechanics do, which is an interesting inversion of what you would expect.

05

What Critics Are Saying

Critical Consensus — July 2026

The Hollywood Reporter”Elementary but enjoyable. Brown has matured nicely in the role.”

The Guardian”The franchise is starting to lose steam.”

IndieWire”Far too elementary. We’re ready for the next level.”

AV Club”Nice to see a franchise that wants to grow with its leading lady.”

Empire”So overstuffed and overly plotty it rarely gives viewers time to breathe.”

Rotten Tomatoes73% critics score — franchise’s lowest so far (EH1: 91%, EH2: 93%)

The pattern in the critical reception is clear and consistent: almost everyone agrees that Brown herself is excellent, the Malta setting is gorgeous, and the film’s treatment of colonial history adds welcome substance. The disagreement is about whether those qualities compensate for mystery mechanics that are weaker than the previous films and a pacing that struggles to maintain momentum across 105 minutes.

06

Where Does It Sit in the Franchise?

📌 Something Worth Noting About the Colonial History Thread

🏛️Malta was a British Crown Colony from 1800. The film is set in 1886, at the height of imperial control. The mystery’s connection to looted Afghan treasures and Maltese resentment of British occupation gives the film a political seriousness that the Nancy Springer source material never quite reached. This is Jack Thorne’s most ambitious social commentary in the franchise, and in those moments the film genuinely elevates itself.

🎬Director Philip Barantini previously worked with Jack Thorne on Adolescence — the critically lauded Netflix one-take drama from 2025. Their collaboration here is more uneven, but the instinct to ground the adventure in real historical weight is a clear carry-over from that partnership.

07

What Works, What Doesn’t

What Works

Millie Bobby Brown — more confident and more precise than ever before

Malta as a filming location — genuinely stunning, fresh visual identity

The marriage / identity dilemma — rare emotional intelligence for a PG-13 adventure

Himesh Patel as Watson — a genuinely valuable new dynamic

Helena Bonham Carter as Eudoria — reliably scene-stealing in every scene

The colonial history subplot — thematically the most ambitious of the trilogy

Brown and Partridge’s chemistry — warm, earned, and never saccharine

What Doesn’t

The mystery is underpowered — plot holes weaken what should be the engine

Moriarty is underwritten — never truly menacing despite being the villain

Henry Cavill’s minimal screentime removes a crucial energy source

Barantini’s direction lacks Bradbeer’s kinetic spark

The first 15 minutes struggle to generate momentum

Mycroft (Sam Claflin) is absent — an unexplained gap in the ensemble

The new score by Aaron May and David Ridley lacks Daniel Pemberton’s personality

08

Should You Watch It? Our Honest Take

If you have watched Enola Holmes 1 and 2 and liked what you found there, you should absolutely watch Enola Holmes 3. The character continues to reward the time you spend with her, and Millie Bobby Brown’s performance is the most nuanced and assured she has delivered in the role. The Malta setting is beautiful, the romantic thread is genuinely satisfying, and the film’s engagement with colonial history gives it a seriousness that prevents it from being purely decorative fun.

If you are coming in expecting the tight plotting and directorial energy of the first two films, dial the expectation back slightly. The mystery is the weakest of the three — not broken, but underpowered. IndieWire put it fairly when they said the franchise is ready for Enola to really grow up, and that this film does not quite get her there. There is a more complicated, more adult Enola Holmes movie clearly visible inside this one, and the frustration comes from its occasional unwillingness to fully commit to the complexity the premise deserves.

What the film does earn, unambiguously, is its final twenty minutes. The wedding sequence — and I will not say more than that — is exactly what the romantic thread has been building toward, and it lands with genuine warmth and a welcome note of progressive defiance that feels true to who Enola Holmes has always been. After everything she has been through across three films, the ending feels like the right one. Whether or not there is an Enola Holmes 4 — Brown has said she would return if Netflix were interested, and there are ten more Nancy Springer books to draw from — this film works as a chapter that honours the character without fully stretching her.

It is, in the end, what The Hollywood Reporter called it: “Elementary but enjoyable.” For a franchise built on a character who was never supposed to be elementary, that is a slight step down — and an honest one.

★★★☆☆

Our Rating: 3 / 5 — Charming, Sun-Drenched, and Slightly Too Safe

Millie Bobby Brown is the best she has ever been in this role. The film around her does not always match her level — but it is a warm, visually gorgeous, and thematically earnest addition to a franchise that still has genuine life in it.

Our Score: 3/5Rotten Tomatoes: 73%Metacritic: 60/100Hollywood Reporter: PositiveThe Guardian: “Losing steam”

Enola Holmes 3 is rated PG-13 and is currently streaming globally on Netflix from July 1, 2026. For cast, crew, and user ratings, visit the official IMDb page ↗. The official trailer is available on the Netflix YouTube channel ↗.

Enola Holmes 3Millie Bobby BrownNetflix 2026Henry CavillPhilip BarantiniLouis PartridgeHimesh PatelHelena Bonham CarterPeriod DramaMystery Adventure

Disclaimer: This article is an independent editorial review. All factual information — release date, cast, crew, critical citations, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores — is sourced from publicly available platforms including Netflix, IMDb, Wikipedia, The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, IndieWire, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic. No copyrighted dialogue, scripts, or proprietary studio material has been reproduced. All critical quotes are paraphrased from their original sources in accordance with fair editorial practice. This article complies with Google AdSense content policies.

Published: July 6, 2026  |  Category: Netflix Film Review  |  Word Count: ~1,250  |  IMDb ↗