 |
A murder mystery with no intrigue. |
| Murder at the Embassy is a sequel to 2023’s Invitation to a Murder, a movie that has stayed with me over the years despite its many flaws due to the strength of the lead character. You don’t often see indies get sequels, but I’m glad this one did. Mischa Barton’s Miranda Green deserves more screen time. If Daniel Craig can keep solving more murders in the 2020s, why can’t she in the 1930s? | 2025 Directed by: Stephen Shimek Screenplay by: Mark Brennan, Alex Davison, Douglas Beauvois Starring: Mischa Barton | |
| Unfortunately, they filled the movie with the blandest characters possible, and it’s hard to care if Miranda solves the murder or not. Of course she will, but it might have been more interesting if she didn’t and just walked around Egypt instead. Miranda (Mischa Barton) is on vacation in Egypt; as she’s conversing with her dog, we see a murder take place in the dark and a body disposed of, but that’s not the murder that Miranda is called to solve. The British Ambassador in Egypt is hosting a dinner party with an American film star (Why? Who knows), a British journalist (Why? Who knows), his daughter, a translator, his local staff and Miranda (Why? For no reason other than she’s semi-famous back in England and is currently in Egypt). And then in the morning a murder happens. This is the murder Miranda is called upon to solve. As with the first one, I like how the misogyny of the times is handled. Miranda has multiple stumbling blocks all due to the fact that she’s a single woman in 1935 in Egypt. None of which deter her. She’s even more confident here than the first time around. There’s a lot of politics for the film to play with – we’re in the Middle East in 1935, Hitler is in power in Germany, nazi-ism is on the rise, and countries are trying to figure out who their allies are. All of this does come into play in the plot eventually, but it’s too little too late. The movie spends most of the first third with each character arguing back with Miranda about why they couldn’t have possibly done it, she also has zero evidence uncovered, and keeps going back to all the main characters who have nothing interesting to add. And then miraculously in the final third of the movie it all gets wrapped up in an ultra convoluted bow, which Miranda needs a way too long monologue to unwrap each twist, most of which didn’t actually happen in the movie and all the big breaks in the case occurred off-screen, including the first murder which is never mentioned until it is conveniently solved at the end. I still like the idea of this film series, but the execution got worse. If you’re here for the murder mystery, it’s a mess of minimal twists with over-explanation; and if you’re here for the socio-political backdrop, it’s only use is in the messy, unentertaining murder mystery. | ||