There's undeniably good things about this movie. The set design and fashion are nothing short of gorgeous. The actresses are all skilled and fun to watch. These things stand out, and elevate the movie to a certain extent.
But it's not enough to carry the whole movie. The plot is thin and poorly presented. We arrive at revelations by characters going "you have a secret, don't you" at several points in the movie, and another character responding "yes, yes I do".
The most mysterious character - the maid - serves a beautiful dinner. This is taken as proof that she's working somewhere below her capabilities, and the femme fatale demands to know her secret. The maid proudly goes "yes, I only came here because I enjoyed sleeping with the boss" and everyone has very mild reactions to this and then she decides to leave. Okay..?
The maid can't leave immediately so she decides to take on the spinster aunt as a permanent pet project instead. Why?
The revelations are all like this. They barely make sense and the responses from other characters are tepid or borderline nonsensical. A planted gun is found and three of the women let out little surprised screams, and that's the end of it. Why would the gun even matter as a murder framing device...? The patriarch wasn't killed with a gun.
The characters are all stereotypes, but I can forgive that, since I think it was intentional. The patriarch has no lines in the movie, is only shot from the back, and the only way we learn more about him is through descriptions of others.
Even then, this character manages to come off as intensely unsympathetic. He's bad with money, he's not a good businessman in general, he only married his wife so he could buy a house he likes, he was willing to put all his relatives through the trauma of his death just so he could decide who to leave impoverished in a time where women were wholly dependent on men for security, and seems to be loved by no one besides his children.
But when he actually dies by the end, not even his children are particularly upset. His youngest daughter asks if she's going to be grounded over the murder mystery she planned, her mother confirms, and that's the ending. It's light-hearted to the point of being stupid.
But it's not enough to carry the whole movie. The plot is thin and poorly presented. We arrive at revelations by characters going "you have a secret, don't you" at several points in the movie, and another character responding "yes, yes I do".
The most mysterious character - the maid - serves a beautiful dinner. This is taken as proof that she's working somewhere below her capabilities, and the femme fatale demands to know her secret. The maid proudly goes "yes, I only came here because I enjoyed sleeping with the boss" and everyone has very mild reactions to this and then she decides to leave. Okay..?
The maid can't leave immediately so she decides to take on the spinster aunt as a permanent pet project instead. Why?
The revelations are all like this. They barely make sense and the responses from other characters are tepid or borderline nonsensical. A planted gun is found and three of the women let out little surprised screams, and that's the end of it. Why would the gun even matter as a murder framing device...? The patriarch wasn't killed with a gun.
The characters are all stereotypes, but I can forgive that, since I think it was intentional. The patriarch has no lines in the movie, is only shot from the back, and the only way we learn more about him is through descriptions of others.
Even then, this character manages to come off as intensely unsympathetic. He's bad with money, he's not a good businessman in general, he only married his wife so he could buy a house he likes, he was willing to put all his relatives through the trauma of his death just so he could decide who to leave impoverished in a time where women were wholly dependent on men for security, and seems to be loved by no one besides his children.
But when he actually dies by the end, not even his children are particularly upset. His youngest daughter asks if she's going to be grounded over the murder mystery she planned, her mother confirms, and that's the ending. It's light-hearted to the point of being stupid.