Love Letters of a Star: A Messy Whodunit That Forgets to Breathe

Is this thing worth your time?

Honestly, only if you're the type who finds 1930s high-society melodrama oddly comforting. If you need a tight, logical plot or characters who don't act like absolute lunatics when they panic, steer clear. It’s a movie that feels like a house of cards leaning against a stiff breeze, and somehow, that’s its charm.

The whole mess starts with a blackmailer named Sigurd Repellen—a name that sounds like it was pulled from a hat of 'villain' tropes. He’s got these letters, and Jenny Aldrich is terrified. The pacing here is so weirdly frantic that you barely have time to feel bad for her before she’s already taken the poison. It’s abrupt. Almost rude, really.

The Logic Gap

Once the family starts trying to cover up the suicide to avoid a scandal, the movie turns into a comedy of errors. It’s hard not to wince watching them try to dispose of a body. John thinks he’s a murderer because the guy drops dead from a heart attack right when he shoves him. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife, which, incidentally, is what happens later on the yacht.

The yacht scenes are where the movie really starts to show its cracks. There's this sense that everyone is just waiting for the next plot point to hit them in the face. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in The Paliser Case, where everything hinges on people keeping secrets they are clearly incapable of keeping.

• That valet, Jaffrey? He’s basically the only person in the movie who knows what he’s doing.
• The seaplane arrival is so sudden it’s almost funny.
• Nobody seems to check their surroundings before doing something incredibly incriminating.

I found myself staring at the background extras during the yacht sequences. They have this look of mild concern, like they know the script is going off the rails but they’re getting paid regardless. It’s not quite as chaotic as the energy in The Cheaters, but it gets close.

The reveal about Jaffrey being the real mastermind? It’s a bit of a stretch. The movie tries to force a tense standoff in a cabin that feels like it lasts for three lifetimes. By the time the police finally get their act together, I was mostly just tired. It’s not deep, it’s not particularly smart, but it’s definitely a movie that happened. 🕵️‍♂️

If you like movies that stumble toward their own conclusion without much grace, you might get a kick out of this. Just don't ask too many questions about the timeline.