When you’re rehashing an Agatha Christie whodunit that could just as well be called “Who Killed The Haughty, Flinty Patriarch During His 85th Birthday Party?”, there aren’t that many ways to go. As the various members of the rich Thrombey family are all cynical, hard-edged, “who gives a shit?” types, it can probably be assumed…naaah, let’s not. But what are we to think when the Hercule Poirot-ish detective (Daniel Craig‘s “Benoit Blanc”) announces that no one can leave the family mansion as one of them is the murderer? My first thought, naturally, was “they all did it simultaneously” but director-writer Rian Johnson wouldn’t dare. Would he?

Christopher Plummer plays the elderly dead Thrombey; the living descendants and their spouses are played by Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell. Sidenote #1: Craig is looking a bit creased and weathered. Sidenote #2: All hail Lakeith Stanfield, but not so much his moustache.