Tödliche Einladung

Agatha gets invited to join her sister Olivia's yacht party along with several other elite people. Agatha is a crime enthusiast and runs her own podcast. On the yacht, Olivia reveals the one of her guest won't make it back to the shore and that they will have contemplate their lives up until then as that boat ride could be their last. As they are woken up to a thud leading to a dead Olivia in the high seas, it is upto Agatha to solve the mystery and catch the culprit. How she does that forms rest of the story.

The film gets derailed once the on screen death happens and it barely gives enough to buy into the mystery. Since the whole reveal was about delivering the what the flower stood for, let me try to put forth my analogy in those terms..

1. Love = The makers feel the bunch of characters they have are enough to pull off this story. But there is literal lack of bonding between then especially Agatha and Olivia, who are sisters while there is a mention of loss of a loved one that got them distant but, the death of Olivia barely gets any emotion out of Agatha who at best is an amateur crime enthusiast solving the mystery in an hackneyed manner. There is enough love for the genre but nothing transcends onto the screen.

2. Justice = The whole reveal has this as a major aim i.e. Get justice to the deserving. Sadly, the writing denies it as the reveal itself is far from convicinving and the way it is narrated, just complicates it further when seen from a broad perspective, the crime was pretty much over simplified as it is and so were the main suspects.

3. Forgiveness = It is a bit hard to but as an audience, will have to forgive the makers for a bland product. For all the talk about able to forgive and move on, among the characters, it comes way too late and hardly has any impact.

4. Freedom = the film ended and the instant feeling I got was, well Freedom. Not that I kept comparing it with the recent murder mystery films including the Knives Out, but the weak writing made this a tiresome experience, enough to feel free once the film ended. Also, there was no need to show the police as so dummies, glad they were free to from this case in the end.

I know it usually called Murder Mystery - so no pun intended as always if you will. That said, you have to have a special humor and a vested interest in the genre - that is crime movies but also the whodunnit aspect of it all. Are you interested? Do you like it when you can keep guessing? Not that this movie is anywhere close to the greats (that includes the recent Daniel Craig movies with Glass Onion and so many others).

The acting is ok, the movie itself knows what it wants to tell - though the pacing could be better I reckon. We do have some flaws and some inconsistencies to overcome. Nothing too major ... but I also reckon many probably will know where this is heading, before it ends up there ... still it is fun and what more could you ask of a movie?

Just boring to watch this whodunit movie. The main lead does all the work and police keeps listening to her just because she has podcast on solving cases. She has authority to call others, go outside and all others are confined in the mansion. After 15 mins you will just want to fast forward it to the end to know the culprit. They tried to copy from knives out but failed badly The cast is total let down. Need to fill in some text to complete the character requirement. Just copying the above.

Just boring to watch this whodunit movie. The main lead does all the work and police keeps listening to her just because she has podcast on solving cases.

In the united states, its a deadly invitation. In mexico, it's invitación a un asesinato. Which is really invitation to an assassination! The family and friends of olivia are invited to a trip aboard a yacht off mexico. But it's not really a pleasure trip... it could be deadly, she tells them. And when someone is indeed knocked off, agatha (no coincidence) helps the cops try to solve the murder. Some similarities to murder by death.. where the participants are all connected to the host. And each other, in some way. Not a lot of information yet on imdb. Currently showing on netflix. Hopefully someone with a better command del español can fill in the many blanks and fix up the cast list! Directed by josé cravioto. Based on the book by carmen posadas. And throw in a dash of agatha christie. It's way over-simplified, but it's fun.

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.