You go years without a multi-star whodunit mystery and then they all come at once. In between the release of two recent Kenneth Branagh remakes of old Agatha Christie movies, popped up this loving, if offbeat pastiche of the genre by Rian Johnson. Actually, this movie seemed more reminiscent to me, of an old episode of Columbo or Murder She Wrote (it can't be coincidence that we get a glimpse of the latter in a scene) from forty or fifty years ago.

Naturally, the lead detective has to be quirky, quixotic and a quintessential genius and so he is, in the form of Daniel Craig's heavily Southern-accented detective Benoit Blanc. He's hired by an unknown client to investigate the apparent suicide of an elderly, multi-millionaire murder-mystery writer Harlan Thrumbey, played by the late Christopher Plummer. Again, as you'd expect in this type of thing, there's mucho family intrigue as his three dysfunctional and selfish middle-aged children sit back to await the confirmation and cause of death before the old man's millions are presumably doled out to them in his will.

But when that doesn't happen and the will, rewritten only a week before, leaves everything, and that means everything, to his young Uruguayan carer Marta (Ana De Armas), all hell breaks loose amongst the disinherited while Blanc methodically continues his own investigation, with two rather dull, rule-bound cops for company.

You just know it's all going to end up with Blanc grandstanding in front of all the suspects in a confined room when all is finally explained and every loose end tied up with a nice big bow.

It was all very slickly and painstakingly presented, especially the set dressings inside the old family mansion, although I didn't consider the writing to be any better or worse than it had any right to be. Certain things just seemed weird for weird's sake, like Marta's inability to tell a lie without vomiting up her food or the ridiculous accent that Craig appropriates for his character. I also think that director Johnson could have cut out (no pun intended) a few extraneous family members who added little to the film. The soundtrack was distinctly strange too ( Roxy Music's "More Than This", Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" and the Stones' "Sweet Virginia" over the end credits?) unless there's something I missed in the lyrics of these songs which somehow relate back to some aspect of the plot.

All that said, I grew up watching mystery movies and TV detective series in the 70s and 80s the nostalgic memories of which no doubt helped increase my enjoyment of this particular movie.