Enola Holmes

Millie Bobby Brown couldn’t ask for a better star vehicle than Enola Holmes.

The plucky, fourth-wall-breaking adaptation of Nancy Springer’s novel plays to the Stranger Things actor’s many strengths, and encourages new sides to shine through while portraying the eponymous teen sister of the famous Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin).

Desperate to solve the disappearance of her mother (Helena Bonham Carter) and torpedo Mycroft’s plan of sending her to a boarding school, Enola sets off to London via train. Onboard, she has a fun meet-cute with fellow semi-fugitive Lord Tewksbury (Louis Partridge, Paddington 2) and the first of several terrifying encounters with the henchman (an especially intimidating Burn Gorman) who’s out to kill the young nobleman.

Once in the immaculately reconstructed city, Enola investigates a series of clues left behind by her mother, and flashbacks of the two Holmes women partaking in joyful afternoons of cryptography and indoor tennis help justify the daring and occasionally death-defying lengths to which Enola will go on her quest.

Along the way, she checks in on Tewksbury and has her share of run-ins with the frustratingly humorous Mycroft and the wholly professional but increasingly impressed Sherlock, plus the kind of colorful characters one would expect in a Holmes mystery (regardless of which sibling is the protagonist).

Furthermore, the action sequences are deftly handled and screenwriter Jack Thorne keeps the pace cooking, but its true highlights are Enola’s cheeky direct addresses of the camera — an area in which Harry Bradbeer is well-versed, having helmed every episode of Fleabag.

Though thoroughly lighthearted and raising little doubt that our heroine will succeed, Enola Holmes packs enough teen growing pains and believable emotions to make it more than a complete lark. All told, it’s an unexpected burst of glee at the tail-end of summer, and this cast and crew is more than welcome to reunite for more adventures.

Grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13. Available on Netflix starting Sept. 23

(Photo: Robert Viglasky/Netflix)