I really enjoyed it. Murder mysteries set in big houses with a bunch of rich people yelling at each other is kinda my jam. I can never get enough of these. Although I have to say I would've preferred there to be a slight haunted house aspect to it, as that would have sent me over the moon. But that's okay.
As for the crime itself, I figured right away that Marta was mistaken about injecting Harlan with the 100g of morphine, and that it would eventually be revealed that he had the right amount of drugs in his system. The fact that the antidote was missing from the medicine bag (which itself went missing later) was a giveaway that someone had already switched the bottles and wanted Harlan to die from a morphine overdose and make it look like Marta did it. And the fact that Ransom wasn't even in the first half of the movie, while everyone else was, and then featured prominently in the second half, while all the others faded into the background and the family as a whole become something of a single composite character, was the tell that he must've done it.
It was a big letdown that they advertised such a huge cast of enigmatic characters and actors, and then basically stopped using them after the first 30 minutes.
With such a large cast, I figured this would happen.
I loved that so much, I've never seen a whodunnit where you're watching it from the POV of the person who did it. Seeing her trying to mess up Blanc was really great.
Everything with Marta was just stellar, loved her character so much.
This must be the famous Rian Johnson "subversion" I keep hearing about. I thought it was great, especially since they did such a good job making us want to see Marta get away with it.
Yeah the "my house" on the mug final shot was fucking genius.
Also loved how the trailers spoiler jack shit. The outcome of Plummer's death is revealed super early and the film leaps off to become a cavalcade of additional mysteries.
Great way to dispense with a lot of the moldiness and familiarity of whodunnit stories.
I loved how the facts of Harlan's death are never really in doubt. He died by cutting his own throat, period, the end. It was everything else that was mysterious.
Ana de Armas was great, though I was genuinely surprised that she got so much screen time given the ensemble nature.
Really fun movie. Reminded me heavily of Clue - didn't they even mention that in the movie?
I thought the victim had swapped the medicine himself as some elaborate revenge plan on his family.
I'll admit, for a while I was convinced the whole thing was going to end up being revealed as a Xanatos Gambit (see TV Tropes) by Harlan as a sort of final "F You!" to the family. But then I realized he would be jeopardizing Marta too much by giving her such a heavy role in it.
I really liked that the subtext was a bit more than rich people and alt righters suck. It was also about classism and privilage, and the casual racism that follows. Maybe it was a bit too on the nose at times (ancestral home bit comes to mind) but it fits with the sort of loud satirical tone.
The ancestral home bit was supposed to be ridiculous. The other characters in the room even laugh at it.
But I would agree with you--I would prefer people to be willing to look a bit deeper at the message, rather than just nod their heads and say, "Yep! Nazi boy was masturbating on the toilet! Ha, ha! Take
that, you alt-righters!" After all, one of the characters was intended to be a pretty by-the-book "SJW," and she was revealed to be a massive hypocrite who abandoned her so-called principles as soon as her financial interests were threatened (which is a very common problem with a lot of these so-called social justice warriors--a large number of them are really just privileged white kids who don't really care about or believe in the things they say they do).
I honestly think she will share the money.
I don't know why she wouldn't. It's not like she has any experience running a large publishing business. She'll definitely need help.
I doubt she'll be keeping
all of the Thrombeys around, but I also doubt she'll be dismissing them all out of hand.
Maybe I'm dumb, but I never really understand what the "movie isn't as smart/clever as it thinks criticism" actually means.
To me, the defining example of this type of movie is Unbreakable. That movie is absolutely in love with itself, which is clearly evident from all the long, slow, plodding shots of Bruce Willis mostly standing around looking solemn, and the overly elaborate camera angles.
