Second opus of the Enola Holmes stories with Enola trying to be a detective, on her own, outside of her brother’s shadow. But work is hard to find, she’s too young, a woman… until a young girl comes asking her to find her elder sister. Enola embarks on an investigation that collides with the one her brother is trying to untangle. Politicians hiding the toxicity of the phosphorus used to make matches that is killing the young women working in the factories and Moriarty blackmailing these politicians and playing with Sherlock. Both Holmes will get to the core of these parallele intrigues and solve the case. Maybe slightly too politically correct with Moriarty, a middle-aged black woman, and Dr Watson, that appears at the end, of Indian origin, but a very well-crafted story with magnificent scenes and transitions. The film also references the missing woman as Sarah Chapman, the leader of the 1888 Matchgirls’ strike, and the women that were ill from inhaling the phosphorus that induced osteonecrosis of the jaw, lethal in 20% of the cases.
“Too many people make it their sole purpose in life to fit into the world around them. This is a mistake. It’s your path, Enola. Sometimes you’ll stumble, sometimes you’ll fall. But no matter how lost you feel, if you stay true to yourself, the path will always find you again.”