Brilliant whodunnit

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2020)

If you are a fan of the Agatha Christie-style whodunit set in a country manor or the old board game Clue, you should see this movie, which is a tribute to them. The murder victim is a best-selling crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) who seems to have committed suicide the night after his 85th birthday party at his Massachusetts estate. The suspects are his dysfunctional family (Toni Collette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Jaeden Martell, Katharine Langford, Michael Shannon), Fran, his housekeeper (Edi Patterson), and Marta, his nurse (Ana de Armas). Marta has a very peculiar personality trait that causes her to puke whenever she lies. A consulting detective named Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig speaking in a Southern accent based on historian Shelby Foote) is brought in to assist the police detectives (LeKeith Stanfield, Noah Segan). There are several Sherlock Holmes references. Craig and Evans are quite good, breaking out of their James Bond and Captain America roles, respectively, and the movie itself is very entertaining with some social satire thrown in. It is nominated for the Oscar in the Original Screenplay category.