intrigued

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2020)

Wealthy murder mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is dead from a presumed suicide. The investigating police is joined by dapper private detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) who was hired by an unknown person. It's a family of annoying backbiting leeches and Harlan's kindly nurse Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) who cannot lie without vomiting.
Quite frankly, the movie is a fifty-fifty proposition for the first half. The family is so annoying and Daniel Craig is trying so hard to act. I really need him to stop his accent work. His character would be perfectly great with a British accent. It's all far too peculiar as Rian Johnson is doing his Brick work. The movie reveals the death early on and it seemed obviously from the very beginning that it boils down to the tox screen. She's on the hook as soon as that reveals her mistake. Non of it can cover that up. It becomes a lot of running around in circles.
Then something happens that hooks me into the movie. I started rooting for her to escape Blanc's questioning. The vomiting starts as a silly gimmick at first but ends up helping build a good amount of tension. The last incident is obvious even before it starts but it's still fun. The tox screen is the flashing warning sign throughout the early parts even if it's never mentioned. I kept waiting. When it finally shows up as a major plot point, it seems problematic since there are bound to be copies. Chris Evans adds a great energy in the second half. Despite the nagging questions, it becomes a fun rollercoaster ride. It's a lot of ups and downs but it's never in doubt that it will roll safely to an exit. One thing that bugs me more than most. I don't know what Fran assumes about Ransom's scheme. She sees him tampering with the drugs but she steals the bag. What's the point of that? She steals a copy of the report but the original is bound to come out. What's the point of that? She blackmails him and meets him alone in an empty laundromat. What's the point of that? I don't think Fran's actions make any sense and is nothing more than a series of necessary moves for plot advancement which can all be excuse with Blanc saying that she doesn't even know what's happening. I have come to see Rian Johnson as a filmmaker with interesting style but sometimes his convoluted stories do not favor deeper examinations. Overall, I really got into this movie despite whatever nagging reservations I had about the plot.