Chatter Box Film

This is a review for the 2024 film Aurora Teagarden: A Lesson in Murder; directed by Jessica Harmon.

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Lesson in Murder is an engaging murder mystery film, even if it doesn’t completely reinvent the genre.

The story follows Aurora; played by Skyler Samuels, who works at a cafe and is also a teacher at school. Aurora teaches crime and when she finds out that two of her students got into a fight, Aurora decides to help one of them by offering extra tutoring at the café where she works, hoping it’ll keep him from losing his spot on the school’s sports team. When the boy doesn’t show up to the cafe she starts to worry and heads outside to see if she can find him.  Aurora sees the boy in a car but soon realises he is dead. Will she be able to find out what happened to the boy and who killed him?

I hadn’t seen any of the previous films, so going into this one, I found some of the characters a little confusing—mainly when it came to who’s who and the romantic subplots. That said, the main storyline is still easy to follow.

A Lesson in Murder had some great locations in this film and I enjoyed how some of the film was set in a golf arcade pizza place. This was a fun setting which made for a unique chase scene later on in the movie, due to it being set at the pizza arcade golf place, it made the final action scene more exciting and unique. 

The cast overall did a great job, bringing their characters to life with strong performances. One of the highlights for me was the character of Aurora. Skyler did a fantastic job portraying her. She brought lots of energy to the film and her character was positive, fun and very smiley. Another reason I warmed to her character is that she’s very kind and cares about her students and other characters. For example, she checks in on a student who seems tired and doesn’t hesitate to call out another for being unkind. She also made an effort to stay friends with someone who asked her out, rather than just turning him down completely.  I also loved her outfits and shoes throughout the movie.

Despite enjoying this film, I would have liked the story to include a few more twists. While one of the outcomes was fairly predictable, another reveal took me by surprise, showing the film had the potential for more clever turns.

The ending reveal scene felt slightly rushed and I was left a little confused by some of the motives. A lesson in murder could have also benefitted from a few more exciting action scenes. 

Overall, Aurora Teagarden is a good mystery with charm and good characters, even if it plays the story a little safe in some areas. I am excited to see the other films in the franchise and I hope they make more in the future.