- Genre: Mystery/Comedy
- Duration: 2hrs 10mins
- Directed by: Rian Johnson
- Starring: Daniel Craig (Benoit Blanc), Chris Evans (Ransom), Ana de Armas (Marta), Jamie Lee Curtis (Linda), Michael Shannon (Walt), Don Johnson (Richard), Toni Collette (Joni), Katherine Langford (Meg), Christopher Plummer (Harlan Thrombey)
In this movie, Rian Johnson weaves a neat murder mystery
somewhat the type of Agatha Christie’s, of whose he is a big fan of. The film
portrays a sleek game of cat and mouse, which starts with a mysterious murder
of Harlan Thrombey, a well known crime-writer with lots of best sellers, after
the celebration of his 85th birthday. The death which looked like a
straight suicide could easily be one of his family member’s works who are
regarded as “over achievers”. After all, Harlan had spent his day in disputes
and arguments with his family members regarding various matters.
The twists are amusing though not much striking. Stuffed
with various familiar faces, the film takes the shape of a perfect story with
mystery, suspense and entertainment. We come across Ransom, who is a black
sheep in the film, the sniveling children whose fortunes depend on their
father’s favor and the daughter-in-law, who gets aids from the aged crime
writer. Instead of a butler like in many other stories, here we come across a
caretaker, Marta, who seems very innocent and above suspicions as she ‘vomits
whenever she isn’t speaking the truth’.
Benoit Blanc, a very famous private investigator, comes to
investigate the murder. He claims himself to be “the passive observer of
truth” when the family members couldn’t figure out who had hired him. He spends
his time mostly with Marta as he thinks she couldn’t have done the murder and
gradually starts interrogating the suspects, making them very uncomfortable with
their possible motives and doubly alibis.
The house itself feels like a mousetrap with dark corners,
creaking stairs and a huge knives crown just behind interrogation scenes. Together,
the rooms provide a feeling of maze with jumbles of books, dead animals and
acres of rugs. The overall confinement provides the perfect stage for the aims
of solving a murder mystery.
Rian Johnson scatters enough hints all over the
film to keep the viewers engrossed in trying to solve the mystery themselves, which
is a good sign for any mystery drama. The editor did a great job in maintaining
fluid transitions between the past and the present shots. So hopefully the viewers are
going to like it as they have to keep guessing till the end and wait for the
revealing of “the biggest truth”.
By Aniket Chakraborty
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