REVIEW: Clue

In an era where The Emoji Movie is soon to be an actual thing (thank you, Sony Pictures), it's worth noting that absurd adaptations are hardly a modern convention. Take, for example, 1985's Clue, based off of the classic board game. At first glance, basing a film off of a board game sounds like a ludicrous venture; when it comes to board games, plot elements are typically little more than set-dressing. It's the reason there's a million different branded variations of Clue, Monopoly, and The Game of Life. The murder/mystery elements of the game are just for show, since the actual game itself is less about discerning motives and more about using process of elimination to predict the contents of an envelope. That said, I hardly think there's a licensed adaptation that can't simply be salvaged with a hefty dose of originality and imagination. The biggest problem with the Battleship movie wasn't that the filmmakers decided to make it about alien warships firing giant pegs at naval vessels, so much as it was that they decided Rihanna was an actress. If you want an example of an absurd concept that shines purely because of the amount of polish applied by the filmmakers, look no further than Clue.

Set in 1954, the film opens with an assortment of people attending a fancy dinner party at the mysterious Hill House. As each guest is greeted by the butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry), they are given an alias and instructed to keep their actual identities a secret. Thus we are introduced to our would-be suspects, Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Miss Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), and Miss Scarlet (Lesley Anne Warren). Once they are joined by the final guest and host, Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving), Wadsworth informs the guests that they are all the victims of blackmail and that Boddy is the man behind it all; the dinner party was merely an excuse to get them all under one roof to confront Boddy and turn him over to the police. Boddy reminds everyone that he can simply reveal their secrets once in police custody, and instead suggests that they kill Wadsworth and destroy the evidence, handing everyone a weapon. He turns out the light, there's a gunshot and a struggle, the lights go back on, and Boddy is lying dead in the middle of the parlor. And thus, the movie officially begins, kicking off a race to discover the identity of the killer before the police arrive and implicate everyone.

The film is a love-letter to classic whodunnit mystery tales, capturing the same charming, anachronistic atmosphere as the board game. One of the most important reasons why this movie works as well as it does is that it presents a genuinely engaging mystery. As the night goes on, more and more bodies keep turning up and the stakes keep getting higher and higher. The film also famously contains three different endings; the idea being that theaters would receive one of the three, each one presenting a different outcome. With this in mind, I tried to uncover the culprit before the movie revealed who the murderer really was (as anyone who enjoys a good mystery plot is wont to do); not only did my top three choices keep constantly changing as the film went on, in the end I had only guessed correctly once. 

The film really does an excellent job of keeping the audience guessing, throwing out red herrings left and right, giving everyone in the house probable cause for suspicion. The best mysteries are the ones that the viewer can solve simply based off of the clues presented; a sudden deus ex machina reveal that ignores the entire plot and buildup isn't so much clever as it is lazy writing. While I think it would certainly be a feat for someone to predict the final, "true" ending on a first-time viewing, the final scene (in which every bit of evidence is laid bare before both the characters and the audience) more or less proves that all the pieces of the puzzle were present and accounted for before arriving at the climax.

It's a truly commendable effort; it's not like one has a whole lot to work with when building a film based off of the Clue board game, yet this film manages to incorporate essentially every element from the game and pass as a legitimately well-thought-out mystery story to boot. That's to say nothing of the wonderfully irreverent, sardonic tone. The key to a good multigenre film is ensuring that both genres are not only evident, but well-represented. In the same way that Alien is both an effective horror movie AND an effective sci-fi story, Clue manages to be both a hilarious comedy and an engaging murder-mystery. When adapting a licensed product, it's important to have some perspective and remember what exactly it is you're dealing with. It would take a tremendous leap for anyone to take an adaptation of a board game seriously, the same way it would be difficult to make a Where's Waldo adaptation in the style of The Bourne Identity. By going for an overall comedic tone to compliment the air of mystery, the movie is able to faithfully translate the board game to the big screen, substituting the fun and easygoing atmosphere of actually playing the game for dry wit and slapstick sensibilities. Everyone in the film gives a wonderful performance (especially Tim Curry, who becomes a pure dynamo in the final act) and the writing is so quick and sharp I fear I may have cut myself while watching it.

Clue is an ideal cult classic. It's silly and strange and stems from what was very likely a ludicrous concept back in the day; making an entire movie based off of a board game. In the years since, we've gone from "one instruction manual's worth of plot" to "smiley faces and pictures of poop", so it would seem we've only dug ourselves deeper into that Tartarus-like pit that is licensed adaptations. It's a wave that can't be helped; so long as studios enjoy making money, brand synergy will always exist. But Clue is evidence that not every attempt to cash-in on a profitable brand has to be painful. In fact, with enough care and talent and attention to detail, it could even end up being fun, memorable, and legitimately engaging (not to mention, endlessly quotable). It's not often we get a movie like Clue or The LEGO Movie, where a shamelessly nonsensical idea is turned into something excellent, but when it happens it's certainly always a treat.