CommentsXp Best movie ever!

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Michael Ledo Beloved school teacher Jane Neal (Bronwen Mantel) takes an arrow through the chest in the first scene. The murder mystery in the small community of Three Pines gives us lots of suspects and twists in what appears to be an old fashion mystery.This is a made for TV film made in the part of Quebec where a community of poets, artists, and gays all speak English and nothing as vulgar as French. Once I got over that part, I noticed the characters were rather bland. They had good lines and roles, by the acting and directing was second rate. The guy I had pegged for the killer, wasn't it...but I was close. The clues lead us everywhere like a good mystery.The film had potential. Worth a view for fans of TV mysteries.

Hitchcoc I have read all the books. Louise Penney has created a fascinating subculture in Quebec. The characters, starting with Inspector Gamache, are as well developed as any that I have read in this genre. It's sad that the first effort to dramatize this author's work is such a weak effort. Let's start with the fact that books and movies are different media. To compare them isn't always fair, but good movies made from good books are quite possible. History shows that (e.g. "To Kill a Mockingbird"). To start with, the movie is just plain dull. The script has no sparkle, no oomph. It seems like nothing ever comes to a point. Penney's characters are marvelous. Not only do they not look the part (bad casting) but the lines they deliver are lacking in breadth. Ruth is one of the most precious, almost frightening of the residents of Three Pines. She would never let Gamache push her around like he does in this film. There is no tension at all. Even when they go to the archer's house, the discovery is ho hum. I hope at some point, this author who has found herself atop the New York Times best seller list will get her due.

douglasscarol123 I wanted to like this movie, having read all of Louise Penney's atmospheric, intelligent, introspective books featuring Armand Gamache. How disappointing to find that all that has been reduced to soap opera standards. There is in the movie none of the sensitivity, insight, philosophizing that makes the books so compelling. The cast is impossibly good looking, with that plastic, every-hair-in-place, perfect make-up at all times look so common to made-for-TV movies. The characters, instead of being complex and unpredictable, are stilted, their utterances short, too fast, emotionless--a sign of poor direction and/or poor acting. The use of that husky, almost-whisper voice (who talks like that?) also betrays the cookie-cutter approach to this movie. Scenes are very short, pushing the plot ahead in only the barest, least thought-provoking manner. It's a shame to see Penney's deeply thoughtful works reduced to such shallowness. It was peculiar, as well, to see what Penney describes as the surreal, provocative artwork of murder-victim Jane,(thus killing off a main and recurring character in the books) represented as poorly-rendered American Primitive. Have the producers/director no loyalty to the books at all? If Penney is one of the executive producers, as referred to in other reviews, I cannot imagine that she feels the movie faithfully represents her literary work. I doubt, too, that she had much to say about it.

coucoukatchou4 Boy was I looking forward to seeing that rootless Ruth! Where was that mean machine in the movie? The characters lacked character all together. Way too reserved! And I could barely make out what Gamache was mumbling. Thanks for trying! I know it is a hard task to make a movie from a book especially when their are so many great characters. And Penny's writing gives us many opportunities to feel each one of them. This could be hard to achieve in one TV movie based on one book of her Gamache series. But I know that I would watch a Gamache TV series if they promised to dig deeper into the characters. Show some expressions and presence on that TV screen!Lets see that rootless Ruth in action!