Excellent writing still wasted tons of potential

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2019)

The movie starts really high. The presentation of characters is superb. Entertaining (and needed) exposition mixed with funny dialogue and great performances, ultra natural. But after 15 great minutes, the real protagonist Marta (Ana de Armas) takes center stage. The movie promised by the trailer ("Clue" but in a movie, and funnier), just wasn't anymore. She was the victim's nurse. The victim was the patriarch of a family, owner of millions and murdered the night of his 85 birthday. The supporting character is detective Blanc (Daniel Craig), motivated by a curious anonymous contract to investigate the crime.
From there, the focus is on Marta and her connection with the family and the crime, and the detective trying to unveil the truth, leaving the rest of the cast in the periphery. The film's pace suffers. Even with great writing, the story just gets more conventional. Chris Evan's character, Ramson, gets a bigger part after an hour, but by that time, the movie just had lost the intensity. It ends up being dense. A mix of repetitive "investigation scenes", good jokes, bad jokes, little twists and bigger twists, and it turns awkward.
With a lack of emotional weight and skin deep social commentary, the solved mystery doesn't satisfy.
The idealization of the minorities (in this case, Latin-American), creating a character almost impossibly virtuous without any defect, felt clearly condescending.