Reunion
Reunion
Murder mysteries are in once again, and Reunion tries to ride the wave. Though, as far as the creative team here is concerned, almost everything they attempted was done better in 2022’s the quite underrated The Afterparty, and quite a lot of projects both before and after it. One aspect not lacking on any level is the talent assembled.
Each of the members of the reparatory cast helps the audience to get involved in both, the mystery and funniest moments of the film, without a doubt, Get Out’s Lil Rel Howery. The types tackling each of the would be cast’s roles may be apparent, but the premise of the film has some promising signs of silliness. Without the engaging elements of its murder preambles, Reunion fails to be interesting long before its annoying conclusion.
Ridgeview High’s Class of ’01 is about to hold its school reunion courtesy of rich Matthew, played by Chace Crawford, at his mansion. As police officer Evan (Billy Magnussen) and his best friend Ray (Howery) advance in the position of attending the event, they worry about how their memories from the past will be received by their classmates.
Ray makes the tough talk of declaring his intention to score tonight, while Evan’s intensity towards the whole event seems to be quite different. If anything happens, it happens. Once the people have started partying, Evan quickly tries to get Jasmine’s attention as she is the girl he had a crush on in high school.
It seems there are more than one probably believable figures in attendance, whose names are not worth mentioning and whose stories add very little. While it’s snowing outside, there is a blackout, and poor Jasmine wakes up the following day next to a corpse of Matthew! Unable to reach any cellular or landline service and with various suspects available, the group of friends attempts to put the pieces of the murder mystery together.
The character relationships are each and every one of them different and actually establishing each feud and conflict enables the viewer to be entranced during the first act of the film. Additionally one could also note The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev as uptight Congress potential Amanda, who has come a long way from her partying days; and Vivian (Jillian Bell, 22 Jump Street, Rough Night), a weird recluse who keeps her eyes on Evan and Ray and promises to put on a show.
Willie Block and Jake Emanuel do write a heavy-weight script, but it is diabolical to imagine what use the inefficiently paced middle section has. Also the position of direction does not appear to be in good hands with Chris Nelson who delivered probably the worst film to be ever released on Netflix, The Perfect Date, before this.
In The Afterparty, we followed how each character interpreted and expanded the same events differently by showing us each and every side of the story. Reunion doesn’t have time for that sort of thing so just goes for the whole party searching the mansion for clues as if they were Scooby Doo and the gang. And by the time we go to the very foolish reveal towards the end, who really cares about such a resolution anyway?
Reunion is certainly not the most captivating film of 2021 but even for mediocre murder mysteries it is not the worst reunion one could have.
The production is not repugnant or horrific in any manner and is for the most part entertaining. However, because of the shortcomings of the screenplay, it is certain that it will knee deep and swept under the carpet long before the end of the year. Not so much as a blotch on anybody’s resume, the film is essentially a desperate attempt to catch on to a trend, Reunion is forever concealed in the flaunts of better whodunnits and is inferior to many of them.
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- Genre: Comedy, Mystery
- Country: United States
- Director: Chris Nelson
- Cast: Lil Rel Howery, Billy Magnussen, Jamie Chung
