Can a movie which combines a murder mystery, comedy, drama, lesbianism and musical numbers be a success?  Yep, you betcha!  Director François Ozon has taken what I believe is a page right out of an Agatha Christie mystery novel and has created a most original and fascinating film on the "murder with the suspects trapped in a house" theme.  I was somewhat skeptical going in to see this movie on whether this one could be both entertaining without going over the top, and it succeeded without a doubt.

      The film begins with the arrival of Suzon coming home from school for the Christmas holiday with her mother Gaby.  We see that they live in a plush estate with snow falling and deer roaming around the mansion.  We also quickly find out that there are many people living in the estate.  Along with her mother, Suzon's sister and father share the house with two servants as well as Gaby's mother and sister.  Immediately upon arrival, it is discovered that Gaby's rich husband has been murdered in his bed.  The police cannot be reached because the phone line has been cut and the one car at the house has been made undrivable.  Soon, the dead husband's sister arrives at the house and all sorts of accusations start to sprew.  For the rest of the movie, up until the surprising ending, many secrets become revealed as this family has an enormous closet of skeletons.

      This is one fun and entertaining film.  Each character actually has a small musical number which is done as a real scene and not as a dream or imagined one.  And the musical numbers have serious undertones which reveal something about the person singing them.  While solving the murder may be the ultimate goal of the characters, the movie is more interested in the dark secrets each person seems to have kept to themselves unwitting that some other family members know their secrets as well.  As soon as we think we know who the murderer is, more secrets and truths are revealed which make us think again. Thus, there is some dramatic moments mingled into the comedy of errors as the accusations start to fly.  This is also a beautifully shot film with scenes of snow falling outside the huge glass windows while at the same time inside the house, dark and disturbing things are going on.

      I will offer that this film might have the best collective acting by a group of actresses which have ever been in the same film.  From Isabelle Huppert's ugly duckling never-loved sister to Emmanuelle Béart's maid who is much smarter and sexy than one would expect, all the roles ring true.  All the actresses bring something different to the film and it's most fascinating to watch them play these roles. However, I believe that many unfortunate movie goers will ignore this movie because it is in sub-titles with lots of dialogue.

      This is one of the most original films I've seen in a long while and as I've said above, it takes the mystery/murder novel aspect to new heights.  I think this film has a great shot at winning an Oscar for best foreign film and that word of mouth just might make this one take off and have a great American box office.  It's always refreshing to see something different at the movies.