How is it possible to make a dull film from an Agatha Christie novel? Try this method: keep the mystery vague and the answers poorly explained, REMOVE any sense of SUSPENSE or URGENCY, and add that insufferable talkiness that plagues many French pictures. Voila! This is probably the most boring, sedate Agatha Christie adaptation I've seen so far. Of course, I was not expecting another "Death On The Nile" or "Evil Under The Sun" (especially when in the place of Hercule Poirot you have two middle-aged amateur sleuths), but I was not expecting to be totally indifferent to the outcome of a story coming from the Queen of murder mysteries either! The only good points of this film are the beautiful, vividly photographed French country locations and the fairly engaging performances of Catherine Frot and André Dussollier. (*)
Review of By the Pricking of My Thumbs
By the Pricking of My Thumbs
(2005)
Sedate, dull and unsuspenseful (but pretty to look at)
8 August 2007