Easily the worst film adaptation of an Agatha Christie mystery I've ever seen - by far. As I watched (and fell asleep, awoke, fell asleep, awoke, fell asleep, awoke) rewinding constantly to catch what I'd missed - I realized the fault was that of the screenwriter and director. They're completely incompetent.
Excruciating tedium, a narrative that just does not further the story for an hour at a time, an ending that simply TELLS you in the last five minutes the entirety of the mystery - and a waste of many fine actors (Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, Julian Sands, Max Irons (son of Jeremy, whom I liked very much in The White Queen), the wonderful Terence Stamp - WASTED them all! - make the viewer actually angry at the film.
How do you ruin Agatha Christie? Even when it's not been done very well (e.g., the played for broad jokes in the 1950s versions with Robert Morley and Margaret Rutherford), it's FAR more interesting than this real mess. And to think of the many dozens of wonderfully made versions starring Joan Hickson or Geraldine McEwen or David Suchet models is to realize it can't be a near-impossible task to create an entertaining in fact engrossing film of Agatha Christie.
The director should not have been allowed the financing to make this movie - he is incompetent.
Excruciating tedium, a narrative that just does not further the story for an hour at a time, an ending that simply TELLS you in the last five minutes the entirety of the mystery - and a waste of many fine actors (Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, Julian Sands, Max Irons (son of Jeremy, whom I liked very much in The White Queen), the wonderful Terence Stamp - WASTED them all! - make the viewer actually angry at the film.
How do you ruin Agatha Christie? Even when it's not been done very well (e.g., the played for broad jokes in the 1950s versions with Robert Morley and Margaret Rutherford), it's FAR more interesting than this real mess. And to think of the many dozens of wonderfully made versions starring Joan Hickson or Geraldine McEwen or David Suchet models is to realize it can't be a near-impossible task to create an entertaining in fact engrossing film of Agatha Christie.
The director should not have been allowed the financing to make this movie - he is incompetent.