Garage Sale Mystery: The Art of Murder

Jennifer Shannon and her business partner Dani agree to chair a massive garage sale fundraiser for the Kappa Kappa Kappa sorority. During the preparations, Sydney Wenton—a stepmother trying to bond with her stepdaughter Abbey—goes missing. Her body is eventually discovered in her mother Elizabeth Mellon's storage attic. Detective Frank Lynwood and the medical examiner conclude that Sydney, distracted by her cell phone, tripped over a doorstop and hit her head on a pipe, resulting in an accidental death. However, Abbey tells Jennifer that Sydney was a professional dancer with impeccable balance, making a clumsy fatal fall seem unlikely. Jennifer's suspicions grow when she examines Sydney's phone and sees she attempted to dial '9' just before the incident, and she realizes the blood on the pipe appears too 'perfectly' placed. Parallel to the mystery, Jennifer's husband Jason is experiencing a mid-life crisis as his birthday approaches, obsessing over a vintage 1965 MG car and attempting to stay fit through various exercises. Dani adds a layer of eccentricity to the story by taking a 'vibrational cooking' class, which posits that raw foods have higher energy frequencies that can cure disease. Jennifer's investigation shifts toward the valuables in the Mellon attic. She discovers a dust outline on a table indicating a missing painting, which she identifies as a Jasper Cropsey landscape worth $100,000. Initial suspicion falls on Sam Brisco, a disgruntled handyman who stole toy soldiers from the house, but Frank confirms Sam has a solid alibi for the night of the murder. Jennifer eventually connects the dots to Tina Parsons, Sydney’s friend who works at an auction house, and Tina's husband Andrew, a struggling abstract artist. Andrew, facing foreclosure and bitter about his lack of success, had learned about the Cropsey painting from Tina. He sneaked into the attic to steal it but was surprised by Sydney. He killed her with a different pipe and used his artistic skills to stage the scene as an accident, even painting blood onto a fixed pipe to mimic a fall. In the climax, Jennifer receives a distress call from Tina and rushes to Andrew’s studio. She finds Andrew holding Tina captive and planning to disappear with the painting. Jennifer confronts Andrew, who justifies his actions through his financial desperation and artistic resentment. The police arrive just in time to arrest Andrew. The film concludes with Jason’s birthday, where Jennifer surprises him with the vintage MG, and the family abandons a 'vibrational' raw food dinner in favor of a celebratory pizza.