Bubbly Mystery

Description

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears is a 2020 Australian mystery adventure film directed by Tony Tilse and starring Essie Davis as Phryne Fisher. It is based on the Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries television series and the series of Phryne Fisher novels written by Kerry Greenwood.

Phryne Fisher helps to rescue a young Bedouin girl called Shirin from imprisonment in 1920s Jerusalem. While doing so she is suspected of having died. Shirin is reunited with her uncle Sheikh Kahlil Abbas and they travel to Lofthouse Manor in England where a memorial is being held for Miss Fisher by her friends Lord and Lady Lofthouse. DI Jack Robinson travels to England from Australia to attend the memorial and is just about to deliver her eulogy when Miss Fisher arrives in her biplane.

Shirin discusses with Miss Fisher about how she came to be in Jerusalem. As a child, a sandstorm had wiped out her village and she was the only survivor, having been rescued by a mysterious stranger. This stranger has now sent her a letter asking to meet at All Saints’ Church at midnight.

Miss Fisher notices that the letter had already been opened so volunteers to attend the meeting on Shirin’s behalf as it could be dangerous. On her way to the meeting, she asks DI Robinson to accompany her to the meeting. At the church, she approaches a British man called Wilson.

He is shot by an unknown assailant. Before dying, he gives Miss Fisher an emerald amulet which he asks her to give to Shirin. Miss Fisher and DI Robinson are arrested at the scene and the police reveal that Wilson was a felon who had deserted the British army with fellow soldier Captain Harry Templeton who has already been executed for desertion.

Miss Fisher and DI Robinson visit antiquities expert Professor Linnaeus, who explains that the amulet is engraved with the inscription « Crypt of Tears ». Linnaeus explains that legend says that during Alexander the Great‘s last campaign through Palestine, he suffered a horrible loss and was so bereaved that his very tears created a desert spring, really a tomb. It is also said that Alexander placed a curse on the tomb where anyone who disturbs it, they and their loved ones will be cursed. Linnaeus warns Phryne that the amulet is proof that the tomb has been disturbed, which has triggered the curse. While there, the unknown assailant attempts to steal the amulet from DI Robinson who manages to fight them off. The following morning,

Miss Fisher sneaks into the Sheikh’s bedroom at Lofthouse Manor where she discovers that the Sheikh had signed an agreement with Lord Lofthouse and businessman Vincent ‘Monty’ Montague involving the British Palestine Railways. However, after learning from Shirin that it was British soldiers who murdered their family, Kahlil angrily breaks off the contract and loudly denounces the British during a party at Lofthouse’s manor. Later in the night, he is shot dead by the unknown assailant.

DI Robinson visits Captain Templeton’s widow who gives him an astrolabe which had been owned by her husband. He also learns that after Templeton’s execution, and the supposed disturbance of the tomb, his at the time pregnant widow went into early labor despite there being no complications before then. The baby didn’t survive. Miss Fisher finds a large emerald in a pot in the Sheikh’s room which is verified by Professor Linnaeus as being linked to the amulet. DI Robinson, Miss Fisher, Jonathon Lofthouse (the younger brother of Lord Lofthouse), and Shirin all travel to Negev and find a tomb in the desert using the astrolabe.

There they find an ancient corpse preserved in honey. The body is that of Alexander’s secret desert bride who died, leading to his grief. Another corpse is found near the coffin, which had been stabbed by a dagger carrying Jonathon’s insignia. Jonathon reveals that he had accompanied Captain Templeton and Wilson to Shirin’s village a decade ago in search of the jewels. While Shirin’s mother, the guardian of the tomb, showed them inside, Captain Templeton went mad and shot and murdered the villagers. Shirin’s mother upon hearing the gunshots, lashed out at Johnathon. There was a struggle in which he accidentally killed her.

Miss Fisher tells Lord Lofthouse the truth about Jonathon and later says goodbye to Shirin. After pretending to shoot a spider to appease Miss Fisher’s fears, Jack has a heart-to-heart talk with Phryne about their relationship. He tells her that he doesn’t need to marry her, he just needs her heart and she declares she had already given it to him. They spend the night together.

In a mid-credits scene, Phryne receives a letter announcing that her husband, whom she married to help him secure his kingdom (while he was in love with someone else), has been murdered.