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.
A Deadly Invitation
2023 [SPANISH]
Comedy / Mystery / Thriller
Plot summary
Eccentric millionaire Olivia sends her half sister Agatha, and a group of old acquaintances, a mysterious invitation for a weekend on her yacht, where they will discover the true motive behind this invitation: the celebration of… a murder?
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
October 12, 2023 at 07:02 PM
Director
Tech specs
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Enjoyable Light Mystery
A lighter mystery for fans of Glass Onion ilk.
Gorgeous remote seaside backdrop for a film that is Similar to Glass Onion and Then Then There Were None, but lighter and Mexican. The acting was decent and I think cosy mystery fans and hardcore fans of Glass Onion might like this.
The story follows true crime podcaster Agatha as she is invited with five other acquaintances to an evening at her half-sister's seaside estate. On the first evening her sister, Olivia, plummets to her death while they are all onboard for a dinner and overnight at her bequest. Olivia is an eccentric millionaire and at the dinner she announced someone was going to be murdered, Agatha just didn't believe it would be her sister. Now Agatha along with a rookie cop is determined to solve her murder...luckily all the suspects are trapped at their seaside location.
I loved the secret doors and the revelations about their past...along with some decent detective work, but this is definitely on the lighter side of sleuthing.
My review is based on watching this film in it's original Spanish language with English subtitles.
A Deadly Invitation
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.