UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

grantss Miss Marple is thrilled when one of her favourite movie stars, Marina Gregg, and her husband, director Jason Rudd, move to her village of St Mary Mead. Ms Gregg and her husband throw a housewarming party and, unfortunately, Miss Marple is injured shortly beforehand, so can't attend. The party turns out to be very eventful as one of the guests, Heather Badcock, dies of an overdose of anti-depressants in her cocktail. Ms Gregg suspects the poison was meant for her, a fear which is justified when her coffee is poisoned on a film set. The police, aided by Miss Marple, investigate.The best of the Miss Marple series. Very intriguing mystery, quite plausible in its back story, and quite simple in its implementation. For once it's about the characters and everyday human motives, rather than a fantastical, long-winded story. Miss Marple is less bland than usual but the episode is aided and abetted considerably by the presence of Joanna Lumley as Marple's friend Dolly Bantry. She gives the episode a great deal of colour.

gridoon2018 This is the third screen version of a rather peculiar Agatha Christie tale - peculiar because it's really more of a tragedy than a whodunit. If you haven't seen either of the previous two (1980 with Lansbury, 1992 with Hickson), you will probably enjoy this latest one more than I did; it's very well-made, with grand production values and a terrific cast, but it doesn't really bring much that's new to the table, apart maybe from the director-husband knowing, or at least suspecting, what has been going on all along. In comparison to the 1980 version, story-wise, this one gets a point for explaining who the photographer at the party is (which the older version never bothered to do), but loses a point for not showing to the audience until the very end the picture that Marina was looking at when she "froze" (the 1980 film played fairer in that respect). As I mentioned before, the cast is terrific; Joanna Lumley returns as Dolly Bantry after "The Body In The Library" and she is just as delightful, Lindsay Duncan is excellent as the neurotic Marina, and Hannah Waddingham is ideally cast as the sexbomb Lola - she has a truly amazing body <- I wish more women looked like that! *** out of 4.

TheLittleSongbird The book is not Agatha Christie's best, but it was very good and interesting. Likewise with the Joan Hickson adaptation, and the Angela Lansbury film was flawed but enjoyable. When I heard about this version, I was curious in both a good and bad way. Part of me was looking forward to it, seeing as how superb The Blue Geranium was, something that felt like Agatha Christie and had a great tone to it that was missing I think. But part of me was worried, I was hoping it wouldn't be another Sittaford Mystery or At Bertram's Hotel, in short an adaptation that not only was a complete disrespect in detail and spirit to the Queen of Crime but also on its own terms.After seeing it, I needn't have worried. The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side is one of the better entries of the series, and I also think it is the best adaptation of the book. In fact it is almost perfect, though I think the second murder could have been more drawn out than it was and the story of the photographer could have done with more development.That said, the adaptation succeeds as an adaptation. The story is wonderful and compelling. Also, it felt like Agatha Christie, the tone was tense when it needed to be, the memorable characters were there and just as interesting and her style was there. While there are some changes, the backbone is still intact, in fact in comparison this is one of the more faithful Marple adaptations. The script does do justice to the book, there are the red herrings and the charming and witty dialogue that makes her work furthermore engrossing.The adaptation also succeeds on its own terms. The pacing is bright and breezy, while the final scene is quite poignant. The production values are superb, I loved everything about how the adaptation looked, from the way it was shot to the house itself. The music is lovely, some of it is beautiful(the final scene) while some of it is intense and haunting(the scene on the film set about half way through). As always, the cast are impeccable, Julia McKenzie is terrific while Joanna Lumley seems to be thoroughly enjoying herself. Hugh Bonneville at the moment seems to be one of the busiest men on television, and he is interesting, and Nigel Harmon is a nice addition. I also loved Caroline Quentin here, her character is tiresome but Quentin is great, plus this is the best developed Heather Badcock I've seen. The real revelation though is Lindsay Duncan as Marina, she is brilliant and by far and large the best Marina Gregg I know of. Not only in the delivery of the lines, the voice and the gestures but especially her look of what seemed like a combination of guilt and sadness.All in all, a wonderful adaptation and one of the best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Neil Doyle I haven't been a fan of the new Miss Marple series that began with Geraldine McEwan as the lady sleuth, but this time--with JULIA McKENZIE as the inquisitive old lady, readers of the book should be pleased to know that it follows the original story fairly well. The plot itself is not as gimmicky as some of the other Christie stories and is easy to follow. An alert viewer will realize what's going on from the start, since the incident surrounding the death of movie fan Heather Badcock was based on the true-life case of movie star Gene Tierney's situation involving a fan who got out of her sickbed to greet the actress. From that incident, Miss Christie drew her inspiration for writing this murder mystery centering around the tragic result based on a casual meeting.As Marina Gregg, the temperamental Hollywood star, LINDSAY DUNCAN does a fine job and her handsome young husband is played well by NIGEL HARMAN. Others in the supporting cast are all proficient and well cast in their respective roles.The solution is one you can spot coming if you know the background story of the Gene Tierney incident. One of the better Agatha Christie tales to be transposed to the screen, it's interesting from start to finish with never a dull spot or lagging moment.