A Deadly Invitation

Spanish film with people brought on a yacht by Olivia (Maribel Vertu), including her sister Sonia (Stephanie Cayo), a detective.

Olivia announced that she has a surprise for all of them. Shortly afterward she falls to her death.

Since the yacht is between two jurisdictions, Sonia works on the case - who killed her sister, and why have all these people been gathered here?

This is a convoluted story - the people are connected by a tragedy that took place in Olivia's and then-husband Carlos' life. The ex is also on the yacht, along with Olivia's nemesis, a yoga instructor, a housekeeper, a workman, and later on, a detective.

We aren't given much to go on. At the end, Sonia, with everyone gathered together in true mystery style, reveals the elaborate plot.

This plot was complicated, and I'm not really sure how Sonia figured it out.

It's not horrible, but it has no intensity or interesting atmosphere. We don't get to know the people very well.

I wasn't going to see this movie because I thought it was going to be about divas on a yacht, sex and drugs or something like that. The truth is that I found it very entertaining and different. The story may be somewhat cliché, yes, we already know it, but this one has very unexpected and original twists until the very end, and it is very comfortable to watch, with great landscapes and photography of Mexico, and some good actors, not all. Regina Blandón and Maribel Verdú are the stars!

The reactions of this funny group of friends after a dramatic situation could have been more real, although that gives it that touch of parody and eccentricity, that's what it's all about.

They also could have used more and better humor, since the jokes are somewhat bland.

It's like watching a long episode of the English series 'DEATH IN PARADISE', which I love. Even the movie poster!

Much better than I expected, and I think the rating is too low, this movie it's sarcasm, parody, and adventure with that good feeling of mistery to be solved on the beach and vacation atmosphere that we all like.

I definitely recommend it, very refreshing and original, just to have a good and chill time. And with a totally unexpected ending.

This Mexican murder mystery opens with a variety of people being invited to the home of Olivia Uriarte. They include Olivia's sister Agatha, who runs her own true crime podcast; Olivia's ex-husband and other people she knows. When they arrive they are assigned specific rooms but there is no immediate sign of their host. She meets them later aboard a boat. Once together she tells them how each of them has a motive to kill somebody in the group. In the morning Olivia is found dead. To complicate matters at the time the boat is positioned where two police jurisdictions meet. While it is decided who should investigate the guests stay in the house and a junior police officer along with Agatha start asking questions and exposing secrets.

I thought this will was okay; not terrible but not great either. The mystery is intriguing enough and there are some decent twists but there is also far too much standing around talking. I know some viewers had a problem with the main investigator being an amateur rather than the police officer but that has been a genre staple for about as long as there have been murder mystery stories. Inevitably there are quite a few clichés but the final resolution worked for me and felt somewhat original. The acting is decent enough and the location used is impressive. Overall It is distinctly sub-Christie but is okay if you like the genre and fancy watching something set somewhere more exotic than the typical English village.

These comments are based on watching the film in Spanish with English subtitles.

I think the script was written by middle schoolers. The dialogue is terrible. Stupid clues that make no sense eg. The yoga instructor eating with his left hand meant he never went to India. Yes, someone who vacationed in India is taking on all their customs. Plot points and revelations are utterly predictable too. Some had me rolling my eyes. The acting is ridiculously bad-particularly the "actor" that played the detective and the victims sister. He's straight out of some community play and she simpers and clings to her love interest like he's isn't creepy and gross with bad makeup and hair. The female protagonist is okay but has no personality. Don't waste your time.

A bunch of quirky personalities are assembled at an exclusive Mexican location only to realize there may be a killer in their midst. So right away we know this is a NAFTA-knockoff of Agatha Christie; and it's more or less what you'd expect. The cast is charming and the movie maintains an affable darkly-comedic tone. There are two major flaws. First the movie extols the viewer to follow along and solve the mystery; but it doesn't provide enough information and the solution relies on flashback exposition dumps. Second it spends far too little time setting up the mystery and potential red herrings; and far too much time on explicating the resolution. Overall reasonably enjoyable but not as good as it could or should have been.