Odd that there should be so many negative comments about this film on iMDB when the average vote is so high. Not surprising, however, that most of the disgruntled viewers should have had no real idea what to expect from a Robert Altman film when they went into the cinema. This was never going to be a straightforward Agatha Christie-type murder mystery, in fact it went some way to subverting 1930s country-house whodunnit conventions, not least, as someone else pointed out, by making the detective a clueless duffer and thereby avoiding the climactic 'we shall all convene in the drawing room at eight o'clock when I will unmask the murderer' denouement.
At the same time, I disagree with the notion that the murder mystery element of the film was almost an afterthought, tied up as it was with everything else the movie was trying to convey. (To say more would warrant a spoiler warning.) Those who worked it out before the truth came explicitly to light and criticized the film as a result are obviously better at sussing out detective fiction that me (and I admit I've always been lousy at it); to them I would simply say that you can understand a murder plot without beginning to get your head around a subtle study of the intricacies of the British class structure. And to fail to appreciate as large a gathering of British screen and theatre actors working at the height of their powers as you're ever likely to see again is a very sad thing indeed.
9/10. One of Altman's best.
At the same time, I disagree with the notion that the murder mystery element of the film was almost an afterthought, tied up as it was with everything else the movie was trying to convey. (To say more would warrant a spoiler warning.) Those who worked it out before the truth came explicitly to light and criticized the film as a result are obviously better at sussing out detective fiction that me (and I admit I've always been lousy at it); to them I would simply say that you can understand a murder plot without beginning to get your head around a subtle study of the intricacies of the British class structure. And to fail to appreciate as large a gathering of British screen and theatre actors working at the height of their powers as you're ever likely to see again is a very sad thing indeed.
9/10. One of Altman's best.