Crooked House (2017) Reviews

• All hail Agatha Christie! What a phenomenal writer she was.

  Coventry2018-04-10

  More than 40 years after her death, the almighty Mrs. Agatha Christie is more alive than she ever was! I've been a massive fan of her work since many, many years, so you can imagine how ecstatic I am with this Christie-revival. The BBC still regularly produces fancy mini-series based on her work (recently there was another great version of "And then there were none", starring Sam Neill and Charles Dance) and within one and the same year there were no less than two large-budgeted film productions with impressive cast ensembles. Kenneth Brannagh played it safe, with another umpteenth but nevertheless enjoyable interpretation of "Murder on the Orient Express", but most of all I was looking forward to the very first adaptation of the fantastically bonkers - and Agatha's personal favorite - story "Crooked House". At first, I was a bit concerned regarding the choice of director. The French born Gilles Paquet-Brenner's first film "Walled In" really sucked, and he didn't do a very impressive job transferring Gillian Flynn's powerful novel "Dark Places" into a compelling thriller, neither. But hey, maybe it's because I'm biased regarding the source material, but "Crooked House" nevertheless became a good old-fashioned and absorbing mystery-whodunit with a stellar cast, lovely decors and a thoroughly ominous atmosphere. But it's the phenomenal story that is domineering here. Like I said, I'm biased, but if the novel is faithfully adapted it's difficult to ruin a good Agatha Christie tale. If you haven't read the novel or read any plot spoilers, I dare you to guess the denouement! The dead of 76-year-old family patriarch and self-made millionaire Aristide Leonidès quickly turns into murder when it's discovered that his insulin got replaced by a lethal poison. Leonidès large and entire family, including a sexy young wife and a sister-in-law from his previous marriage, all live together at the immense family estate and, in familiar Agatha Christie style, each had a motive to murder the overbearing old man. His beloved granddaughter Sophie enlists the help of private detective, with whom she had a brief romantical history in Cairo, but he doesn't make a lot of progress in unmasking the culprit. For people who aren't as obsessed with Agatha Christie than me, "Crooked House" is perhaps slightly overlong and admittedly it takes too long before the second obligatory incident occurs. Meanwhile, however, there are many great dialogues and a continuously mounting suspense to enjoy. The young cast members (Max Irons, Stefanie Martini, Honor Kneafsey) do a more than adequate job, and it's always a pleasure to see some veterans, like Glenn Close, Terence Stamp and Julian Sands.

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• It's not just the house that's crooked

  TheLittleSongbird2017-12-26

  Agatha Christie is one of my all-time favourite authors, and, while 'Crooked House' is personally not one of my favourites of her books, it is not hard at all to see why she herself thought very highly of it (one of her favourites reputedly). It is a terrific book with a dark atmosphere, a lot of suspense, even more unexpected and delicious red herrings and twists, well-defined characters, a strong mystery and one of her most shocking and most ballsy endings. She didn't have one quite like this, with a murderer that one does not expect with a quite frightening motivation. Can totally understand the mixed reception for this 2017 film adaptation of 'Crooked House', both from book purists and especially for those not familiar with the source material. Was very mixed on it myself, there are worse Agatha Christie adaptations as well as much better. As an adaptation, it is not exactly dumbed down, nor is it a complete re-write like some of the Geraldine McEwen adaptations. In fact, there are a lot of recognisable elements as well as having things that add nothing. On the flip side, 'Crooked House' feels bland, as an adaptation and as a standalone (a lot of the criticisms unusually this time round have actually come from those unfamiliar with the book beforehand). It lacks the suspense of the book, much tighter direction would have helped in particularly Hayward's backstory scenes, which felt like irrelevant padding and slowed the story down in what was already a film that was prone to pedestrian direction. What it also lacks is the well-defined characterisation, here with so many suspects one doesn't really get to know most of them. The characters that the film focuses most on are also the least interesting, while others especially Laurence are so underwritten that one forgets they are even there most of the time. The most interesting characters are actually Edith and Josephine. Max Irons is a dull, charmless lead and shares very little chemistry with Stefanie Martini as Sophia, who plays the character with charm and allure but could have brought a harder edge. Pacing is also odd, parts do feel pedestrian while the staging of the ending is slightly rushed. There are positives with 'Crooked House' conversely. Apart from some sloppy editing at times, it looks wonderful. Very elegant and atmospheric, with deliciously evocative attention to period detail and sumptuous photography. The music is haunting and jaunty if occasionally a little intrusive. The script, which has a lot of talk and requires full attention all the time, is thought-provoking and droll. It is thankful that the twisty nature of the story and its darkness are still intact, the red herrings and twists fascinate and shock. Likewise with the final revelation, it was very brave to keep it intact and because it is such an ingenious ending that really makes impact in the book it would have induced fury by me if changed. Luckily it also still leaves me floored, although the film rushes the pacing and staging of it, is chilling, in some ways affecting and in Christie's time and now it's pretty daring. Some other scenes leave impact. There is a suitably awkward and well-staged dinner scene, while the scenes between Hayward and Josephine actually feel relevant and add a lot of intrigue to the mystery and Josephine's character. It is something of a shame though that the difference in acting quality is obvious, young Honor Kneafsey far outshines Irons when they're together. Other than Irons, the acting is good. Particularly from an enigmatically regal Glenn Close, gravitas-filled Terence Stamp (underused but great) and beyond her years Honor Kneafsey. Unrecognisable Gillian Anderson (looking like Cleopatra risen from the dead in mid 20th century period detail) , vampish Christina Hendricks and firm Julian Sands are also fine. Christian McKay is pretty wasted. Concluding, a crooked mixed feelings adaptation of terrific source material. 5/10 Bethany Cox

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• Not Bad

  bangel33222017-11-29

  I have not read the book, so I'm unable to make comparisons. Seeing as Agatha Christie thought this to be her best book, I'm guessing the novel was 10x better than the movie. I felt the film itself moved quite slowly, despite being nearly 2 hours long. I felt myself at points losing interest. I'm thinking we needed a Marple or Poirot in this to spice it up a bit! I'm absolutely obsessed with the Poirot series; I find it thrilling, jam packed with twists, and so when I come across any Agatha Christie adaptation, I'm expecting them to live up to these high standards, but this fell short. I don't believe there was enough time with the suspects for the audience to build cases against them. However I must say that the big reveal of the actual killer left me speechless, it made up for the rest of the movie being quite boring, otherwise my score would be a lot lower. I'd say instead of big named productions, stick to the BBC/ITV adaptations of Agatha Christie's work....so much better. By the way Glenn Close was fab.

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• Perfect movie for a rainy Sunday afternoon

  spaldjaaex2018-04-29

  Great cast, excelllent plot, and an unexpected ending. Add in a very good script and perfect scenery. From my experience it's one of Agatha Christie's best. My only two concerns were that the volume of the sound rose to ear piercing levels when any music came on, and there were so many characters that I sometimes got confused as to who was married to who and the relationships between them.

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• Good mystery movie!

  db-184782019-03-13

  Twisted plot and nice acting! 10/10 for a mystery movie.