Stream It Or Skip It: ‘In for a Murder’ on Netflix, a Murder Mystery That Wants to be the Polish ‘Knives Out’

Netflix movie In for a Murder (or W jak morderstwo in its native Polish) jumps into the neo-murder-mystery revival fray of the last few years. Based on a novel by Katarzyna Gacek, the film stars Anna Smolowik as a bored and underappreciated suburban mom who starts poking around after a dead body is found in her quaint little town. Good thing she’s read some Agatha Christie, eh?

IN FOR A MURDER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: JAUNTY MUSIC: Magda (Smolowik) cheerfully loads her cutesy wicker basket with fresh vegetables, then bicycles down the nice tidy lane back to her nice tidy home with the nice tidy lawn and nice tidy kitchen. She has two kids, but they’re not dead or missing or quirky murder suspects, so they’re not important here, just window dressing. Her husband is Tomasz (Przemyslaw Stippa), and he needs to be set out on the curb so some passerby in a truck can take him away forever. What a jerk. He’s treating her like crap one night when she takes the dog for a walk and comes across a woman’s corpse in the park. She calls the cops, and the local detective, Jacek (Pawel Domagala), a doof on a Vespa who happens to be her neighbor and an old friend and the husband of her wacky friend, arrives to inspect the scene. Magda is clearly more astute in her observations, but he’s the guy with the badge, so step aside, ma’am.

That doesn’t happen, of course. Magda paints a veneer of pleasantry over her lingering bummerhood. Her marriage is crap, Tomasz won’t let her pursue a career and her bestie disappeared 15 years ago, and the mystery was never solved. The local hunky veterinarian with the motorcycle offers her a job — and a raised eyebrow maybe — but Tomasz says nopeskies, and she submits. Tomasz also is apparently shtoinking his tennis partner, the local blonde ditz with fake boobs and water on the brain. So snooping around for clues and “helping” Jacek with the homicide investigation provides a welcome distraction from her nice-on-the-outside-but-crappo-on-the-inside quasi-idyllic suburban life.

As all murder mysteries inevitably entail, the film offers a rogue’s gallery of potential suspects for Magda to consider. There’s the local angry bald man, who happens to be married to the local blonde ditz; the local slimy politician; the local slimy politician’s local wife; the local scam psychic; the local jewelry maker; the local dead girls’ local parents; and a local intimidating bleach-blonde guy who might be tailing Magda simply because he forgot to give her change for her takeout pizza. Coincidentally, she comes across a clue that seems to tie her local missing friend’s disappearance to the local dead woman. Will she get to the bottom of this local whodunit? NO LOCAL SPOILERS.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: In for a Murder is no Knives Out — nothing is, really. But it’s also no Murder Mystery, which is a good thing.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s easy to like Smolowik’s understated performance, which deftly avoids any broad cliches. Magda is a put-upon woman whose plucky determination gives her some much-needed confidence, and Smolowik conveys the truth of her character with more nuance than the movie probably deserves.

Memorable Dialogue: Tomasz’s personality, in a nutshell:

Magda: Tomek bought me perfume!

Magda’s local wacky friend: You know those tiny vials are free samples, right?

Sex and Skin: Whatever Magda wishes was happening with the local hunky veterinarian is only happening in her head, and not even in a dream sequence, so, none.

Our Take: Without Smolowik to keep us engaged, In for a Murder would fall apart at the seams. The emotional layers of her performance give depth to an otherwise boilerplate character stuck in a sloppyplot mystery that barely sets its hook. Magda kind of mills around in watery scenes that range from lightly comedic to lightly dramatic, and when the plot is supposed to, director and screenwriter Piotr Mularuk fails to inject much risk into situations, and therefore doesn’t generate much in the way of suspense.

Mularuk clearly put some thought into his visual presentation of the setting, using its peaceful affluence and, yes, its locality as a mask for darker goings-on, whether its adultery, murder or greasy political maneuvers. Somewhere in here, maybe, is a satire of life in the suburban bubble, and the story of a local woman who has subscribed to the lifestyle for so long, she’s failed to recognize that it’s made her unhappy. But the film is tonally bland and lacks wit — and gets very silly, and then even sillier still, as it reaches a deeply unsatisfying conclusion to the murder plot. Mularuk clearly shows some Knives Out-ish ambition, but the poorly developed and witless mystery plot ultimately deep-sixes the movie. So it goes.

Our Call: SKIP IT. You have to admire Smolowik’s winning performance. But beyond that, In for a Murder is mostly a dud.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream In for a Murder on Netflix