Marple: Nemesis (2007) (TV)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Nicolas Winding Refn

Writers:

Agatha Christie (novel)
Stephen Churchett (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 February 2007 (Canada)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Miss Marple is called upon to solve her most perplexing case yet. Upon his death, financier John Rafiel asks her to solve a murder...

Plot Keywords:

Spinster | Amateur Detective | Female Detective | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Cast

Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Jane Marple
Laura Michelle Kelly	...	Verity Hunt / Margaret Lumley (as Laura-Michelle Kelly)
Dan Stevens	...	Michael Faber
Graeme Garden	...	Matthew Broadribb
Richard E. Grant	...	Raymond West (as Richard E Grant)
Ruth Wilson	...	Georgina Barrow
Johnny Briggs	...	Sydney Lumley
George Cole	...	Mr. Raeburn
Ronni Ancona	...	Amanda Dalrymple
Adrian Rawlins	...	Derek Turnbull
Emily Woof	...	Rowena Waddy
Will Mellor	...	Martin Waddy
Anne Reid	...	Sister Agnes
Amanda Burton	...	Sister Clotilde
Lee Ingleby	...	DC Colin Hards

Also Known As:

Miss Marple: Nemesis (USA) (new title)

Runtime:

Finland:93 min | USA:83 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Movie Connections:

Version of Miss Marple: Nemesis (1987) (TV)

Another hatchet job!

Once again we are asked to delve into another McEwan/Marple/Christie murder mystery. Except that it isn't a Christie murder mystery. Only the name remains the same to trap unwary viewers. The real mystery is why the trustees of Dame Agatha's estate ever allowed this series to be made by disrespectful butchers. Only "A Murder is Announced" retained some faithful semblance of the original novels.

All filmed interpretations have taken some artistic licence with Christie's mysteries over the years, which is perfectly acceptable to most Christie fans, but none except this Marple series (and the Tony Randall ABC effort) have turned them into unrecognisable farces. And that is most definitely not acceptable. In the various episodes of McEwen/Marple we've been offered, by way of change to the originals, everything including different characters, different plots, different victims, different culprits, added murders, etc., etc., etc., and of course inclusions of Jane Marple into stories in which she was never intended to appear.

"Nemesis" is the last episode in which Geraldine McEwan dons the mantle of the elderly yet intrepid needle-clicking sleuth (we may, I think, be thankful for the omission of "A Caribbean Mystery"), and it once again takes Dame Agatha's wonderful original tale apart, and reconstitutes it into one that makes little sense, logic, or reason, adds, deletes, and changes characters, presents new plot lines and a new conclusion.

I can't detrimentally criticise the performances, I would be wrong to do so, but when a drama is billed as being based on an Agatha Christie novel I expect it to be, and expect to see, just that. Not something that is haphazardly jumbled together by an inferior hack.