Review of 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.