Invitation to a Murder (released as An Invitation to Murder in the UK) is a 2023 American murder mystery film directed by Stephen Shimek and starring Mischa Barton, Chris Browning, Bianca Santos, Seamus Dever and Giles Matthey.
In 1934, wealthy eccentric Lord Findley invites six strangers to his remote English estate under mysterious circumstances. Among them is Miranda Green, a London florist with a sharp mind and a passion for detective novels. When the guests arrive, they discover Findley is absent, but the house is fully prepared for their stay.
Tensions grow as secrets among the guests surface, and soon one of them is found dead. Miranda takes it upon herself to investigate, using her keen observation and deductive skills to unravel the mystery. As more danger arises, she pieces together the hidden motives linking the guests to Findley and to each other.
The film became the first in a series of films starring Barton as amateur detective Miranda Green, who reprised her role in Murder at the Embassy and The Mystery of the Golden Spear.
Tropes:
- Amateur Sleuth: Miranda Green is a florist with a sharp mind and a passion for detective novels who takes it upon herself to investigate the murder.
- Covers Always Lie: The film poster shows the back of a man facing the group with his Classy Cane and gentleman attire, making it seem like he is supposed to be a Poirot-esch Great Detective and will be the protagonist of the film for those who have not seen the trailers. No character of that appearance actually shows up in the film although it could be meant to be Lord Findley.
- Complexity Addiction: Instead of just meeting the intended heir himself to judge if he was worthy, Findley went to all the trouble of inviting four additional heirs, posing as a butler, hiring actors, and creating a murder mystery scenario to test his choice. It backfired precisely because the intended heir was sick of his complex mind games.
- Closed Circle: Six guests are invited by the mysterious Lord Findley to visit his mansion on a reclusive island.
- Faking the Dead: Lawrence Kane's murder was faked to allow Lord Findley to observe how his potential heirs reacted under pressure.
- Fresh Clue: Miranda is told that Lord Findley's dog Blunder died several weeks ago. However, she notices that the butler Sean has been putting fresh water in the dog's bowl every day. From this Miranda realises that Blunder is not dead and that Sean is really Lord Findley in disguise.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Donald Walker. He once, with his bare hands, beat a fight promoter to death when he saw him abusing his wife and tries to strangle Gordon when it appears Gordon might be the murderer.
It was him. - The Hermit: Despite being a billionaire, Lord Lewis Findley lives a life of seclusion. He allows no photographs to be taken of him and sends intermediaries to handle all of business dealings.
- I Am Not My Father: At the end of the movie, Donald Walker angrily denies being anything like Lewis Findley, even after Miranda tells him Findley had already selected him as his heir. However, when Lu Wang points out that he had attempted to frame her, and then Gordon and Katherine, for Findley's murder, and then sow dissent between everyone when that fails, he admits that maybe he is more like Findley than he realised.
- King Incognito: Lord Lewis Findley masquerades as the butler Sean in order to observe his five potential heirs over the course of a weekend in order to decide which of them will inherit his business empire. But then he is murdered...
- Pet Positive Identification: After Sean is murdered, Miranda confirms her theory by bringing in Lord Findley's dog Blunder. Blunder goes straight to Sean's corpse and stays there; revealing that Sean was really Lord Findley pretending to be his own butler.
- Red Herring:
- The rabbits in the shed, which appear to be connected to six guests on the islands, turn out to be meat for the dog, Blunder.
- Gordon referring to Findley in the past tense is never explained, since Findley was alive and working alongside him for most of the film.
- Sherlock Scan: Miranda Green is an expert at this. During the game of 'Two Truths and a Lie', she identifies the lie every time before the person has even finished speaking, through observation of details about them."Your bag looked to be secondhand, and your coat, it was a child size, English in origin. But if your father owned a restaurant, it would stand to reason you would be able to afford at least one of the two, so..."
- Surprise Incest: Narrowly averted. Carmen Blanco and Dr. Phillip Armstrong are romantically interested in one another. However, things have not progressed beyond some passionate kisses when they learn that they (and all the other guests) are half-siblings.
- Tae Kwon Door: The killer incapacitates the butler Sean by slamming him in the face with a heavy door and knocking him to the floor before killing him.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: Subverted. This is what appears to be happening when first Lawrence and then Sean are murdered and rabbits kept in a coop start getting killed off like the ten little soldier boys. However, Lawrence's 'murder' was actually a case of Faking the Dead and Sean/Lord Findley is the only person actually murdered, and it turns out the rabbits were killed to feed Blunder, the family dog.