Invitation to a Murder

Miranda Green (Mischa Barton) is a florist in 30's England. She is skilled in observing and is obsessed with murder mystery books especially those of Agatha Christie. She receives a mysterious invitation from unknown textile tycoon Lord Findley. She joins five other guests on a passenger train to his island estate. There are three staff members but Lord Findley is apparently late in arriving. Soon, Miranda gets her murder mystery to solve.

I liked about two thirds of this movie. It has the Agatha Christie feel. Initially, the main problem is its artificial tone. It doesn't help that these people are going to this place for nothing more than curiosity. Miranda would do it, but only one other seems to have the motivation. It's a murder mystery whodunnit. It's fun. Then the last section tries to solve the mystery quickly and randomly. I don't like a lot of the last third. In the age of streaming, this needs more time and this could be two or three part series. In an aside, I did not recognize Mischa Barton. I assumed that she's some random English actress.

A bit slow and plodding with some questionable acting and some atrocious attempts at acents. The script writing is somewhat lacking and the there's not much of a plot. By the time the titles roll at the ninety minute mark it feels like it's been half an hour too long. The characters are all a bit wooden and the actors seemed to be simply going through the motions. None of them seemed to engage with their character and I couldn't engage with them either.

Has a made for TV feel to it and I would strongly suggest it's not worth going to the cinema to see.

It's not terrible but it's not good either. If you're really bored then maybe give it a whirl.

This is a murder mystery in a setting similar to films like Murder on the Orient Express and Clue, sadly as much as this isn't a terrible movie, it isn't up there with those classics.

On the plus side, the story is quite compelling and doesn't go in the obvious direction. It's also not stuffed with too much filler.

Unfortunately there are some major criticisms i have with this, not least the atrocious accents that range from Traditional English to Pantomine Dame. However it's the main character where's i have most issues. First off, she looks like she's walked in right off the catwalk, not Mid 20th Century England, but worse than that, is how her character behaves. Are we really to believe a group of Adults, most older than her, are going to be bossed around like school Children by a Florist. She even gives orders to the Detective. Why on Earth would anyone let a normal civilian interrogate and order them around, even if she was good at selling murders. At least Jesscia Fletcher of Murder she wrote had the decency to speak to people with respect, this woman was a trumped up snob that in reality would be laughed at. This is a shame, because it's so distracting from the movie, it means it's quite hard to get into.

Still, if you have 90 mins free and there's no better options, it should prevent boredom.

So the acting in this flick is absolutely terrible but it certainly did not get any help from the writing. I am a life long fan of Agatha Christie and other mystery authors, as well as some film noir and I'm a little crazy about giallos. I also love a good mystery-comedy like the 1985 classic, Clue: The Movie with Tim Curry and Madeline Kahn. I would go as far as to say that Clue is one of my top five favorite films of all time. I thought more recent films like Knives Out and See How They Run were both fun and entertaining, while not being up to my highest standards. BUT THIS....did a teenager write this screenplay as fan fiction or what?

Casting a middle aged woman as the obnoxious but lovable, brilliant Hercule Poirot in a skirt could have worked. Could have. An older, curvier Mischa Barton can't plod through movies on her youthful glamorous looks anymore - she's borderline unrecognizable as an average, curvy blonde of about 40 - but that's not the problem: she can't act.

At bottom it is the writing that is terrible, though, that much is clear by the multiple caricatures which should be delightful and funny but just end up coming across as wooden and ridiculous.

There is a enormous dark house with chandeliers, and I do love a nice pair of vintage curtains.

At first this movie had all the hallmarks of a decent little detective mystery movie in the style of Knives Out or Mourder on the Orient express. It has a decent set up, a coherent plot, it establishes its characters and starts to build on their motives.

Unfortunately, it then suffers from having a beginning, no middle and then ends. Why? Probably due to budget or talent or deadline. Who knows. But right until it had me hooked about an hour in, it started to move toward a conclusion and finished.

It's a shame. Micha Barton was a surprise and the set up was good, so, half a film. Still, better than no film at all.