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regular-article-logo Thursday, 12 December 2024

Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler run amok once more as a detective couple in Murder Mystery 2

Directed by Jeremy Garelick, Murder Mystery 2 is currently at No. 2 on Netflix Top 10 in India

Smera Marcia Toppo Calcutta Published 12.04.23, 02:26 PM
Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in Murder Mystery 2, streaming on Netflix

Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler in Murder Mystery 2, streaming on Netflix Instagram

This feels like an unlikely partnership but Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler seem to have found the perfect match in each other. The Just Go With It co-stars have followed up the success of their 2019 film Murder Mystery with the sequel, Murder Mystery 2, which is currently at No. 2 of Netflix’s Top 10 films in India. The Jeremy Garelick directorial does have some logical loopholes, but Murder Mystery 2 is still a good one-time watch on any week night.

The Spitzes spring back into action

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Murder Mystery 2 has Aniston’s Audrey Spitz and Sandler’s Nick Spitz — she a former hairdresser, he a former police officer — embarking on their next (mis)adventure where they get to do what they love the most: sleuthing. After their success in nabbing the killer in Murder Mystery, the Spitzes left their jobs and started a detective service, which is struggling to find its feet.

In Murder Mystery 2, the couple get an invitation to the Maharajah’s (Adeel Akhtar) over-the-top Indian wedding, which soon turns into a murder mystery after the Maharajah is kidnapped and his bodyguard is killed right before his wedding is about to take place.

The suspects include the Maharajah’s sister Saira (Kuhoo Sharma); his fiancee Claudette (Mélanie Laurent); his ex-girlfriend Countess Sekou (Jodie Turner-Smith) and her sidekick Imani (Zurin Villanueva); the head of his company, Francisco (Enrique Arce); and Colonel Ulenga (John Kani) — all of whom are guests at his wedding. And since the Spitzes always tend to find themselves right in the middle of a crime scene on expensive vacations they can ill afford, they are only too thrilled to sniff around for clues.

The Aniston-Sandler combo as a detective couple

Two comedy actors with very different vibes, Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler make a good team as a middle-class American couple of modest means who are dealing with routine marital issues while trying to take themselves seriously as sleuths even though the rest of the world doesn’t. If last time the Spitzes were very clueless about how to go about solving a mystery, this time they have experience on their side – of bungling up, spotting the little details, acting on the spur of the moment and running for their lives just in the nick of time.

Sandler and Aniston act as a foil to each other, with spot-on comic timing. His Nick is a slob, her Audrey is well put-together; he’s cocky, she’s self-assured. But both get their kicks from the same things and come across as bumbling to the people they are investigating. And since the Spitzes don’t inspire much confidence as investigators, you know Aniston and Sandler will get to the point after a series of improbable high-stakes situations and also ensure some laughs along the way.

Jennifer Aniston dancing in a Manish Malhotra lehenga

Aniston acing Bollywood dance steps in a Bollywoodish wedding in a gorgeous Manish Malhotra lehenga — a clip of which went viral when the film’s trailer dropped – might make desi fans of F.R.I.E.N.D.S fall for their old love, Rachel, all over again. Sandler matches steps, too, in the scene in a matching ivory sherwani.

The setting is the Maharajah’s lavish Indian wedding venue, decked up for the Sangeet ceremony with song-and-dance, mehendi-inking spots and North Indian food platters, where a groom riding elephant-back will be knifed to death. This sparks off a chain of events where everyone — including the Spitzes, much like the plot of the first film — is a murder suspect.

Inspector Laurent De La Croix is back

The comical Inspector Laurent De La Croix (Dany Boon) from Murder Mystery makes a comeback halfway through the film. While he was the Spitzes’s rival in the first film, in Murder Mystery 2 De La Croix teams up with the couple and lends them support in pinning down the killer. The French police officer gives an interview on the news, leaving the word ‘Opera’ as a hint for his American friends to find him watching an opera show immediately after. And it all ends very well for him after bumping into a possible romantic interest, Susan (Jillian Bell) inside the Eiffel Tower in the climax scene no less.

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