Adapted from good Agatha Christie book this is one bad movie produced by Cannon Group. It's no strange that it was a box office flop. It's far from Mr. Christie's best adaptations. Undoubtedly the film is unfaithful to the novel . This 1984 version of "Ordeal by innocence" doesn't just fail as an adaptation, it also fails on its own terms too.
The musical jazz score by Dave Brubeck is pretty cool itself , but feels out of place in the movie. The music simply doesn't match with what is happening on screen. The musical score has to be one of the most out of place scores I have ever seen in ANY film. Scoreless it would have been a better film The story is so muddled , that I doubt that anyone who didn't read the book would understand it. It's a shame , because it's a waste of such potential. The ending on paper is quite powerful , but when it arrives here you simply don't care about the movie and just want it to end. The story is a great one, but told in this film confusingly and ploddingly with next to zero suspense or life .This is a "mystery that goes nowhere" as somebody said it. The murderer is revealed half way through the movie. We don't have time to care for any of the characters or even remember their names ! The plot is such a boring mess and impossible to keep up with .The dialogue lacked flow and felt very flat.
The direction is hopelessly flat. Lifeless , endless , makes you totally indifferent about the characters. Even the final revealing of the facts lacks surprise and intensity. Director makes even a mistake of replaying some of the audio from previous scenes over present scenes to represent Donald Sutherland thinking ! On the plus side "Ordeal by innocence" captures a British fell if you know what I mean. The setting is atmospheric. The movie doesn't have a big budget , but this kind of story doesn't really need it. The costumes and sets are very handsome Donald Sutherland gives a good and believable performance as amateur sleuth. He deserved his money. Others like Christopher Plummer and Faye Dunaway are wasted. The performances seem uninspired to say at least.
This movie is only a little bit better than those horrible TV movies with Peter Ustinov as Poirot. It's fascinating how bad this movie is. I give it 2/10.
The musical jazz score by Dave Brubeck is pretty cool itself , but feels out of place in the movie. The music simply doesn't match with what is happening on screen. The musical score has to be one of the most out of place scores I have ever seen in ANY film. Scoreless it would have been a better film The story is so muddled , that I doubt that anyone who didn't read the book would understand it. It's a shame , because it's a waste of such potential. The ending on paper is quite powerful , but when it arrives here you simply don't care about the movie and just want it to end. The story is a great one, but told in this film confusingly and ploddingly with next to zero suspense or life .This is a "mystery that goes nowhere" as somebody said it. The murderer is revealed half way through the movie. We don't have time to care for any of the characters or even remember their names ! The plot is such a boring mess and impossible to keep up with .The dialogue lacked flow and felt very flat.
The direction is hopelessly flat. Lifeless , endless , makes you totally indifferent about the characters. Even the final revealing of the facts lacks surprise and intensity. Director makes even a mistake of replaying some of the audio from previous scenes over present scenes to represent Donald Sutherland thinking ! On the plus side "Ordeal by innocence" captures a British fell if you know what I mean. The setting is atmospheric. The movie doesn't have a big budget , but this kind of story doesn't really need it. The costumes and sets are very handsome Donald Sutherland gives a good and believable performance as amateur sleuth. He deserved his money. Others like Christopher Plummer and Faye Dunaway are wasted. The performances seem uninspired to say at least.
This movie is only a little bit better than those horrible TV movies with Peter Ustinov as Poirot. It's fascinating how bad this movie is. I give it 2/10.