Invitación a un asesinato

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.

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.

Seems to be a remake of agatha christie's novel "and then there were none". They even mention christie by name in the first minute! Micha barton is miranda green. She notices little details. So when guests at an estate start dying, she's determined to figure it out before the police arrive. Alex hyde white (plays sean, the butler) is the son of wilfrid hyde white, who was in the 1965 version of ten little indians! And in some other pretty big films too. My fair lady, third man. It's mostly good. Never gets too suspenseful, but there are some twists and turns. The guests' stories near the end really slow down the story. They seem to drag on and on. And one demerit for some silly little mistakes that a solid christie fan probably would not make. Directed by stephen shimek.

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.

This movie was Agatha Christie on a budget but I still found it engaging. Fun to see Mischa Barton (The OC) again and she did an engaging job with her central character.

The plot was straightforward enough though certainly not original, it seemed to take from several other Agatha Christie stories and mash them together.

It seems like they are setting this up for a series starring Mischa Barton as the new female detective heroine and I would watch another one of these for sure. I'm a sucker for British murder mysteries and this was as good as many so why not?

Still 40 characters short, the review length criteria is too long on IMDB.