Saved by Actors

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2019)

At times amusing, rarely suspenseful, really a paint-by-numbers whodunit hiding a lecture on decadence and immigrants.
Medical practices at center of the crime(s) have little to do with reality -- same for the so-called cops. The bits about the blood drop and the recording -- just lazy.
Family characters needed to be deliciously malicious but instead seem pretty grubby, seem pretty much labels for lecture examples. Their collective helplessness and incompetence may create sympathy for the hero (sort of a plaster saint that vomits) but it doesn't make for satisfying drama.
What saves the film? Proper mystery sets, some fair game criticism of elitism and xenophobia, and efforts by very capable actors working with a script that wants to be "knives out" but is more like...well, there's a prop at one point in the film...
See it? Sure. Enjoy the veteran and young actors, but this movie could have been so much more enjoyable if the characters had been written to be worthy of the title.