Movie Review: Mystery Island

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Two leads, great premise

Cons: Over the top antics, solution doesn’t quite work for me

The Bottom Line:

Mystery resort

Rocked when real murder happens

Could have been stronger

“So What Do You Do Now?”  “Eat.  Drink.  And Wait for Someone to Drop Dead.”

It’s not too much longer until Hallmark goes full Christmas movies for the rest of the year.  But until then, we get a final batch of new mystery movies.  Mystery Island is the start of a potential franchise.  While the premise is fun, the execution left something to be desired.

We first meet Emilia Priestly (Elizabeth Henstridge) at her job as a psychiatrist in London where she works with the police trying to help determine if the people that have been brought in are really killers or not.  However, she’s gotten burned out, so when her friend, Baroness Jane Alcott (Kezia Burrows), invites her to join her for a weekend at Mystery Island, Emilia agrees to go.

The island itself is a resort where the guests spend the weekend participating in a murder mystery.  Jane is an investor and goes frequently, although she has yet to actually solve a case.  This particular weekend is a reunion of the investors to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the resort’s opening.

However, the weekend gets off to a surprising start when Emilia and Jane find a real body.  With the police from the mainland called in, Emilia agrees to help Detective Jason Trent (Charlie Weber) figure out what really happened.  But can they solve the mystery?

The premise intrigued me, and I was looking forward to the movie.  It has all the hallmarks of a classic mystery, including a locked room element to the crime.  What could be better?

Sadly, this movie could have been.  I found the first hour over the top bordering on silly.  I’m sure we were supposed to find the antics of the characters funny, but it didn’t come across that way.  Fortunately, things do settle down in the second half.

Even then, some of the characters do still come across as silly.  I’m sure this was deliberate acting choices from the actors and director, but it should have been toned down.

Fortunately, the two leads are wonderful, and they have good chemistry.  Any time the movie was focused on them, it was fantastic.

The setting of a mansion on an island is wonderful as well.  It was everything a classic mystery lover would want, and I enjoyed it.

I’m of two minds about the solution to the mystery.  On the one hand, it was clever, and the clues we’d gotten fit.  On the other, it didn’t quite work for me.  And that’s all I say to not try to give away anything.

As I was watching, I was wondering how this could turn into a franchise.  It seemed like a very specific case; even the title doesn’t sound like a franchise opener.  But we do get some backstory that would lead itself to an ongoing storyline.  And the final few minutes set up how we can go forward.  It will be interesting to see if Hallmark does decide to go forward with these characters.

In the meantime, Mystery Island proved to be disappointing.  It didn’t quite deliver on the premise, at least for me.  But I’d tune in again to see what the characters get up to next.