A great adaptation of one of Christie's more intriguing Hercule Poirot mysteries. All the characters were well-played with David Suchet as Poirot leading the band. The plot concerns a murder that took place 14 years ago. The daughter of the murdered man and his condemned wife wants to find out the truth. Poirot must interview the only other individuals(the five little pigs) who were present on that day. Not only do we get interesting character studies but we get to know the murdered man and his condemned wife and can see how clearly their own inherent weaknesses led them to their untimely ends. The book, in my opinion, does not communicate the tragedy of this situation nearly as well as the movie does. <Spoiler Alert> I must say something about Julie Cox who plays Elsa Greer. I've seldom seen such a realistic aging effect. The flashback that showed her a coquettish, somewhat spoiled young girl was a great contrast to her persona in the present, a cold and hard woman. And then, despite being easily the least sympathetic of all the suspects, to actually be able to elicit pity from the viewer at the end (and you DO pity her!) only goes to show that fine acting is the rule and not the exception in these recent Christie adaptations.
Review of Five Little Pigs
