Drunkeness level 1/5
Just felt like passing on a personal review of a little known film I saw many moons ago.
The film opens at a party. A woman storms out of the house after an arguement, but is knocked-down by a hit & run driver. Then the credits. What a way to start a film.
What we have here is a murder mystery set on board a luxury private yacht. 6 guests are invited on board to play a game and discuss making a film based on the true story of Sheila, the woman killed in the opening scene. As the game gets into full swing, tragedy stikes and the game takes on a whole new meaning. Is the host actually trying to uncover who really killed Sheila?
Written by Anthony 'Psycho' Perkins and Steven Sondheim this thriller is packed to the hilt with twists, turns and red herrings. The script has plenty of in-house Hollywood jokes and almost every scene has a clue or little nugget of information to keep you guessing. Set mainly on board the yacht, the film becomes quite claustraphobic with the guests themselves losing trust in each other minute by minute.
The cast list is a wonderful who's who of Hollywood. James Mason, Dyan Cannon, Racquel Welch, James Coburn and Ian 'Lovejoy' McShane in one of his earlier roles. James Coburn as the host puts in an especially good performance.
Criticsm? It's hard to find one, but the pace of the film changes from slow to fast then slow again. The final 'reveal' is very well done, but the ultimate ending is a little disappointing. These are minor faults however, compared to the wonderful, overall 90 minutes of murder-mystery pleasure the movie provides. Well worth watching (if you can find it!)
No comments:
Post a Comment