A BRILLIANT WHODUNNIT IT, WITH A SCENE-STEALING TURN BY DANIEL CRAIG

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2020)

Rian Johnson's well-crafted, wonderfully atmospheric, hugely enjoyable old fashioned all-star whodunnit that is a deliciously retro thriller with a modern twist. It concerns a world renowned eccentric best-selling mystery-crime novelist Harlan Thrombey, marvelously played by the great Christopher Plummer, who is found dead with a slit throat and the knife still in his hand at his massive estate after his 85th birthday, was it a suicide? There in lays the tale. A debonair Southern detective with an oversized ego named Benoit Blanc, sensationally played by the charismatic Daniel Craig in a scene-stealing Golden Globe Award nominated for Best Actor, is determined to follow up on his colleague police Lieutenant Eliot's theory that Harlan's death with a suicide, because he believes otherwise. So he assembles all of the combative and dysfunctional relatives that attended Harlan's birthday party to be interviewed by him, they are all terrifically played by a stellar cast which includes Jamie Lee Curtis as the tough property developer, Toni Collette as an Instagram influencer, Don Johnson as the weaselly son-in-law, Michael Shannon as the bugged-eyed frustrated-publisher son, and Christ Evans as the trouble-making trust-funder grandson. Special kudos to the beautiful Ana de Armas for her endearing and wonderful Golden Globe Award nominated turn for Best Actress as Harlan's loyal house nurse Marta Cabrera. Indeed everyone has something to hide, but which one of them is the murderer? Brilliant direction by Johnson who also wrote the clever and captivating Oscar nominated original screenplay. An inventive, witty, dryly funny motion picture with a crowd-pleasing panache. One of the year's best films. Highly recommended.