A New York cop and his wife go on a European vacation to reinvigorate the spark in their marriage. A chance encounter leads to them being framed for the murder of an elderly billionaire.
I'm sure we all get the same feeling when we hear about a new Adam Sandler film. It's known, without a doubt, that the quality of his career has long since peaked, but he has done well enough to that he can make films, cast his friends, and travel the world, bringing back a modest profit. Frankly, I would do the same if I could. But as the profits of the film rely heavily on fans of his early films still hoping for a comeback to something good, here I am watching it too to let you all know whether it is really worth it.
His last few films have been less than critical successes (The Week Of, Sandy Wexler, The Ridiculous 6, and Pixels have scores of 27%, 27%, 0%, and 16% on Rotten Tomatoes respectively) but Murder Mystery brings a surprise increase in quality.
Murder Mystery is as advertised, a murder mystery. It comes across as a satirical look at the genre of whodunit detective stories; a live-action Cluedo, if you will. While the genre is full of clichés (and this movie is too) one of the biggest appeals of all, is Sandler's toned down humour. He certainly still raises his voice and yells at times, but it is all a measured part of his traits and comes across as exasperation of the character, not yelling for the sake of cheap laughs. This greater control provides a much more anchored performance that helps draw you in.
The other aspect that really makes the film work as well as it does, is also in the casting; Jennifer Aniston. We last saw Aniston and Sandler onscreen together in 2011's Just Go With It, and it's clear that there is some great chemistry between the two. Once you gain a handle on their personalities, it's really easy to see the two as a bickering husband and wife combo. Their to-and-fro's on-screen really make this high-profile international murder mystery seem relatable.
Beyond those two, however, the supporting cast were rather underutilised. It worked in some respects but ultimately failed to make them anything beyond one-dimensional. In the one sense, it helped as it meant that all of the suspects were pretty much unknown entities; no sense of history or backstory increases the potential options for a killer. On the other hand, the writing was a little bit lazy. A good writer will leave a hint, and then, later on, provide a payoff to that hint. Murder Mystery has a tendency to provide a hint just before the payoff, which greatly diminishes the payoff. Instead of connecting the established dots, they keep creating new dots in order to serve the direction of the story.
That isn't in every case though, and there is still an easygoing sense of enjoyment as you work your way through the film, coming up with your own hypotheses and reasoning to who the killer would be, and then adjusting as new information came to light. This was where the bickering couple turned into the odd couple, buddy cop duo that keeps tensions high, while still maintaining a positive and humorous atmosphere throughout.
The production values were surprisingly high for a low budget Netflix Adam Sandler film, with some gorgeous environments and slick set designs, but it couldn't make up for what became a convoluted and rushed mess of a climax. Everything had held a good pace, but then fell apart and rushed itself, devolving back into other recent Adam Sandler movies.
Murder Mystery is a fun, light-action whodunit. Enjoyment comes from the great chemistry of the two main protagonists, but it does fall apart towards the end a bit. Regardless, this is definitely one of Sandler's best in the last decade.