Crooked House 2017

In the opulent office of private investigator Charles Hayward (Max Irons), a stunning Sophia Leonides (Stefanie Martini), the granddaughter of the late Greek-British business magnate Aristide Leonides, appears with a somber determination. Her piercing gaze demands answers, and she implores Charles to unravel the tangled threads surrounding her grandfather’s demise. With a hint of vulnerability, Sophia reveals that Aristide’s death was not merely an unfortunate accident, but rather a deliberate act of murder orchestrated by one of their own family members.

As Charles reluctantly takes on the case, he is drawn into a complex web of motives and secrets. Sophia’s visit serves as the catalyst for his investigation, fueled in part by his personal connection to her, a connection born from a brief yet passionate love affair in Cairo. In order to proceed with the case, Charles seeks the blessing of Chief Inspector Taverner (Terence Stamp) of Scotland Yard, leveraging their shared history and Taverner’s service alongside Charles’s father, a decorated former Assistant Commissioner.

As he delves deeper into the Leonides family dynamics, Charles discovers an intricate tapestry of resentment and manipulation. At the family estate, he interviews each member, unearthing a multitude of motives for Aristide’s murder. All of them stand to gain substantially from his passing, though none are immune to the bullying and emotional manipulation that characterized Aristide’s relationships.

Lady Edith De Haviland (Glenn Close), Aristide’s sister-in-law, is a force to be reckoned with. Her disdain for her brother-in-law is palpable, fueled by his callous treatment of his grandchildren and her own family history. This haughty matriarch stalks the grounds, armed with a shotgun, as she seeks to vanquish the moles that plague her meticulously manicured lawn.

Aristide’s eldest son, Philip (Julian Sands), harbors deep-seated resentment towards his father, fueled by his disinheritance and refusal to fund his own creative endeavors. His addiction to poker only exacerbates his sense of inadequacy. Philip’s marriage to Magda (Gillian Anderson), a fading theatre actress, has become a toxic union marked by her desperation for attention and validation.

The Leonides family is riddled with secrets and scandals, each member carrying their own burden of guilt and resentment. Aristide’s grandchildren, Sophia, Eustace (Preston Nyman), and Josephine (Honor Kneafsey), are all caught in the midst of this treacherous web. Sophia, the eldest granddaughter, has her own reasons for wanting justice; Eustace, crippled by polio, is a vulnerable teenager struggling to find his place; and Josephine, a precocious 12-year-old, observes her family’s dynamics with a keen eye, documenting her findings in her notebook.

Meanwhile, Roger (Christian McKay), the younger son, toils as the managing director of a major family business, perpetually teetering on the brink of financial collapse. His domineering wife, Clemency (Amanda Abbington), is a brilliant plant biologist with an encyclopedic knowledge of poisons – a fact that only serves to heighten the sense of unease and foreboding that permeates this complex, intriguing world.

As the family’s dynamics are laid bare, it becomes clear that Aristide’s second wife, Brenda (Christina Hendricks), is a force to be reckoned with. A former Las Vegas casino dancer, she is young and alluring, but also cunning and calculating. Her motives for killing Aristide are multifaceted; not only did she stand to gain financially from his demise, but she also felt resentful towards the entire family for mooching off her husband’s wealth. Her illicit affair with Laurence Brown (John Heffernan), the Leonides children’s private tutor and Aristide’s memoirist, added an extra layer of complexity to her character.

As the investigation unfolds, it becomes apparent that Aristide’s death was not just a senseless act of violence, but rather a carefully planned and executed murder. The fact that his will is unsigned means that Brenda will inherit his entire estate, a development that sends shockwaves through the family. Meanwhile, Roger’s (actor name) admission that his company was in trouble adds an element of tension to the story, as does the revelation that he had a heated argument with Aristide just before his murder.

But there is more to Aristide’s past than initially meets the eye. As Charles delves deeper into the mystery, he discovers that Aristide had a history with the CIA and had funded anti-communist organizations in Greece, all in exchange for help in covering up his shady business dealings in the United States. This adds an international dimension to the case, making it imperative that Taverner (actor name) urges Charles to get to the bottom of the mystery as quickly as possible.

Charles’s search for the truth is met with hostility by most of the family members, who seem determined to keep their secrets buried. Josephine hints at having found clues that she refuses to disclose, leaving Charles frustrated and feeling like he is getting nowhere. But then, a new development throws everything off balance: Sophia discovers that Aristide was involved in making bombs during World War II that destroyed cities, and then profited from the government contracts to rebuild them. She is determined to keep this dark secret buried, going so far as to burn the original manuscript written by Laurence Brown.

As Charles continues his investigation, he becomes increasingly convinced that Josephine’s tree-house ladder was sabotaged, leading to her hospitalization. He suspects that the killer wanted to silence her because of her habit of spying on the other family members. But as more twists and turns emerge, Charles is left wondering if Sophia’s new, properly signed will leaving the estate to her is a genuine surprise or just another clever ploy by Brenda to get what she wants.

And then there are whispers that Sophia may have hired Charles to investigate the murder because of their romantic past, knowing that he would never accuse her of the crime. As the truth begins to unravel, it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems in this complex and suspenseful tale.

As Taverner takes the reins on the case, he’s convinced that Charles’ personal connection to Sophia compromises his objectivity in solving Aristide’s murder and the attempted poisoning of Josephine. The discovery of incriminating love letters between Brenda and Laurence provides sufficient evidence for Taverner to arrest them for their alleged crimes.

However, Charles remains unconvinced by the circumstantial evidence, pointing out that Brenda’s childlike naivety and Laurence’s pacifist leanings make them unlikely candidates for murder. Sophia and Edith share his skepticism, suggesting that the love letters could have been fabricated. As tensions rise, Sophia notes that the discovery of forged letters would fundamentally alter the investigation.

Meanwhile, Charles’ preoccupation with the case is interrupted by a sudden crisis: Josephine’s nanny is found dead, a victim of cyanide poisoning after consuming hot chocolate she had prepared for herself and the young girl. The tragic event prompts Charles to implore Josephine to reveal the truth, as he has deduced that she possesses knowledge crucial to solving the murders.

Josephine, however, remains resolute in her refusal to cooperate, even when warned of the dangers posed by the killer. As Edith collects Josephine and exits the estate under the guise of a trip for ice cream, Charles is left to ponder the sinister motives behind their departure.

The discovery of the nanny’s murder scene reveals the shocking truth: Edith, who had previously confided in Charles about her terminal illness, had used cyanide to kill moles. The coroner’s findings confirm that the nanny died from cyanide poisoning, prompting Charles to suspect Edith as the prime suspect.

A thorough search of Edith’s garden shed yields a crucial clue: a bottle of cyanide, along with Josephine’s missing notebook, buried in quicklime that would have rendered it illegible. The revelation sends Charles and Sophia on a desperate pursuit of Edith, who has left behind a cryptic note confessing to the murders.

As they close in on their quarry, Sophia reads aloud from Josephine’s notebook, unveiling the horrifying truth: Josephine was the mastermind behind Aristide’s murder. He had cruelly terminated her ballet lessons, leading her to concoct a deadly plan to eliminate him and manipulate those around her.

The notebook also reveals that Josephine staged her fall from the treehouse, poisoned the nanny who had begun to suspect her, and forged Brenda’s love letters. Edith, aware of Josephine’s true nature, had worked out the truth and sacrificed herself to exonerate Brenda and Laurence, and potentially spare Josephine a life in psychiatric institutions and the stigma of being a monstrous killer.

As Charles and Sophia finally catch up with Edith, she drives off the edge of a quarry, taking Josephine’s life with her. The film concludes with Charles offering comfort to a distraught and grief-stricken Sophia at the precipice of the cliff, as the tragedy unfolds before them.