Fun, and exactly worth the matinee pricing

Rating: 7/10 (31 January 2020)

This film has a star-studded cast and a plot that was classic and easy to execute. Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Jaime Lee Curtis, and Michael Shannon starred as an estranged and eccentric family coming together for the reading of the patriarch's will. His nurse and friend, Marta, is left the majority of his worldly possessions, and amidst the outrage of his family and the police investigation regarding his untimely death, there is intrigue abound. Marta is technically the protagonist, but she is more of a vehicle for the plot to develop than a player in the game. She is passive in her fate, and her redeeming quality is her niceness. This is shoved down the throat of the audience so many times in literal phrasing that it becomes distasteful and almost suspicious. If you have to TELL us she is nice, then there is a failure to show us, and it is a missed opportunity. As we see the events of the fatal night play out from many different perspectives, it becomes clear that even her hand in Harlan (the patriarchs) death was accidental and passive. Overall, a fun experience, akin to a game of clue, but rather lackluster in the character category.