REUNION

US, 2024, 90 minutes, Colour.

Lil Rel Howery, Billy Magnussen, Jamie Chung, Chace Crawford, Jillian Bell, Michael Hitchcock, Cassandra Blair, Diane Doan, Nina Dobrev.

Directed by Chris Nelson.

The familiar situation, the class reunion, this time held at a country estate in winter. There are the usual introductions to the guests, the focus on someone who has not achieved much in life play by Lil Lil Howery and the local police officer played by Billy Magnusson.

There is the usual activity, raucous American, drinking, dancing, some sex jokes…

There are also some conflicts in a very strange character played by Jillian Bell, making everyone suspicious. And Nina Dobrev plays an ambitious candidate for Congress. Most of the guests leave but a storm blows up leaving six visitors in the house.

For the rest of the film, it is a variation on Cluedo. There is an investigation of the house after a dead body is found, the host, there is suspicions, behaviour, gradual revelations about some of the characters and financial deals, journalist investigations, political blackmail… And, another corpse is found in the boot of a car.

There is a plausible explanation for the solution, one aspect is a guess by most audiences, someone outside the house, but a surprise to discover who was the collaborator inside the house.

And, Lil Rel Howery gets the opportunity to do a Poirot explanation of all the events to the assembled characters.

This party is obvious and, probably, mostly unnecessary. Audiences may enjoy the untangling of the mystery.