In show - it was clearly intended to be the real thing - even the dumbass believed it was (or his reaction would have been entirely different at the attempt to destroy it).
In show - it was given(?) to him by the French Government since he gave them a bunch of cash to help them out due to the pandemic?
I was actually somewhat disappointed. For me the beauty of these types of movies is the complexity of the “whodunnit” part with enough clues left for the viewer to possibly piece it together or make a good guess about how it was done. This was much heavier on the comedy and weird characters than the actual mystery.
By making the answer essentially be “yeah, it was the obvious guy all along” it was pretty anticlimactic for me. Especially the pyrotechnic “blow it all up” ending. And the malapropisms as clues that Norton was really an idiot were clunky and obvious.
But, obviously, YMMV.
One idea I had that I was really hoping for was:
that Helen was actually not Andi’s sister but was Andi herself pretending she had been killed to get revenge on Ed Norton. And then basically have them both on the island trying to kill/frame each other.
I guess I prefer my antagonists to be almost, but not quite, as clever as the detective. Anyway, it was fun enough, but in my opinion not nearly as solid as Knives Out was.
The security system wasn’t working properly because he had the over ride button installed. My point was that after showing us the painting, showing us the security system and showing us the over ride button, there wasn’t really any need to remind us about it’s existence throughout the movie.
I guess I’m still not understanding why we needed such a jarring reminder of it throughout the entire movie.
ISTM, most movies would have dropped the subject entirely once they showed us the over ride switch only to hope we forget about it until the end when the fire starts.
I thought that was the best part of this - Blanc is ‘flummoxed’ at stupidity - and Mile’s was the ultimate dumbass, only slightly dumber than the rest of the crew there (sans Helen). Originally, there simply was no plan to actually kill anyone and had Mile’s been aware of Andi’s sister, there would never have been a murder to solve.
I took the glass case closing/opening to be kind of a ‘tale tale heart’ - a constant reminder that something was afoot.
Yes, the balcony is nice. My first reaction was “Britain” but then the background looked like an ordinary downtown in the U.S., which would make sense because it’s hard to believe Helen would travel overseas with the box just to see Blanc. Does anyone know if this represents a real location in the U.S.? I guess it could have been filmed in Prague, etc. and the background edited in.
I also liked how that scene reflected the way we lived in May 2020, only meeting outdoors and sitting at opposite ends of tables.
TVTropes already has a very complete trope page (as usual, don’t click this if you have real-life stuff to do).
That works for me. I’ll even go a step further and say that it works because it was Duke’s phone that kept triggering it and it was ultimately Duke’s phone that set everything in motion when he got the alert that Andi was dead.
And, similarly, Birdie having a party anyways.
It was entertaining. Maybe not as good as the original, but I have a beef with one particular plot element in that one, too, so it wasn’t perfect itself by any means. It would have been nice to see the perp get perp walked or to see him actually start getting his comeuppance onscreen.
Wouldn’t the people be killed with that much fire erupting?
Benoit and Helen were taking a pretty big risk that setting fire to the hydrogen powered home wouldn’t make the entire island blow up like Hiroshima.
I said as much to my husband. However, this picture shows it’s actually larger than I thought. Probably how it’s displayed in the Louvre gives the impression it’s smaller.
Because it was funny.
Also, the annoyance of the opening and closing prompted somebody (I forget who) to look for Bautista’s phone, which led to the discovery that he didn’t have it any more.
I, too, was put off by the destructive ending, until Helen spelled out that Bron ultimately got what he’d wanted his whole life: to forever be remembered in the same breath as the Mona Lisa. That made it OK for me.
I read somewhere that, in-universe, the painting was damaged a little bit every time the glass door closed shut. Did anyone perceive that ? I didn’t.
When Blanc handed her the hydrogen, given how its volatility is a pretty big plot point, I assumed that they were setting up for Helen to kill everyone and herself. Seemed like a dark turn.
I didn’t notice anything, but realistically, the plexiglass cover slamming shut like that would generate some pretty big shockwaves through the case, which can’t be healthy for five hundred year old paintings.
Enjoyed it, although not quite as much as the first. Was laughing consistently throughout, up until the final act which was a real let down and seemed like they just couldn’t think of an interesting resolution. Guessed the murderer but was surprised it was that simple.
It shot through glass first, which would reduce the speed and impact.
Question: Hugh Grant. Butler or boyfriend?
I thought butler.
Obviously boyfriend, or husband.
I had no idea people thought he was anything but a butler/housekeeper type until reading about the film afterwards.