Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A fine novel ruined by the script-writers., 30 Jan 2004
I shan't talk about the plot, because that would ruin it. Agatha Christie readers could not have possibly have imagined that the adaptation would be this poor. It takes one of Agatha Christie's best novels, and butchers the story, removes half the suspects. It then inserts periods of boring introspection by the detective as he visits his old flat in Whitehaven Mansions. Moreover, in the novel, most of the characters had some redeeming qualities. All humanity seems to have been stripped out of them in this adaptation. As a result, viewers who have not read the book would probably care even less who the murderer turns out to be. Fans always knew that this novel would be one of the hardest to adapt, because there is relatively more narrative, and there is less banter than in the Poirot-Hastings stories such as the ABC murders. However, the recent excellent adaptation of Sad Cypress showed that it is possible to convert the moodier, less conversational mysteries to the screen. A film that is inadequate for first-time viewers and bookreaders alike.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite Poirots, 13 April 2004
By A Customer
It is difficult to single out a favorite among the David Suchet "Poirot" series, as they are all so superbly produced and acted, but this would surely have to be one of them. The Christie book is likewise one of my favorites - although like most of the episodes adapted from the full-length books, the screenplay has had to be substantially simplified and adapted. Nonetheless, I find that this episode brings the essentials of the book to life, as with the rest of the series, faithful in spirit if not in every detail.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Poirot in Perfection., 2 Nov 2008
Hercule Poirot is one of the most famous detectives in literary history. Yet, strangely, except for his portrayal by Albert Finney in the star-studded movie version of "Murder on the Orient Express," for a long time, there did not seem to be an actor who could convincingly bring to life the clever, dignified little Belgian with his unmistakable egg-shaped head, always perched a little on one side, his stiff, military, slightly upward-twisted moustache, and his excessively neat attire, which had reached the point that "a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet," as Agatha Christie introduced him through his friend Captain Hastings's voice in their and her own very first adventure, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (1920). But leave it to British TV to finally find the perfect Poirot in David Suchet, who after having had the dubious honor of playing a rather dumbly arrogant version of Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Japp in some of the 1980s' movies starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, was now finally allowed to move center stage.
And the match is spot-on, not only physically but also, and most importantly, in terms of personality. Suchet shares Poirot's inclination towards pedantry: "I like things to be symmetrical ... If I put two things on the mantelpiece, they have to be exactly evenly spaced," he once said in an interview, comparing his real-life persona to that of Poirot, but adding that unlike his on-screen alter ego, "I don't need the same sized eggs for breakfast!" Although previously not interested in mysteries, his habitually meticulous research allowed him to quickly become intimately familiar with Christie's Belgian sleuth and the workings of his little gray cells -- and to slip so much into Poirot's skin that I, for one, can no longer pick up a Poirot book without instantly hearing Suchet's voice as that of the great little detective.
As in most of the TV series's other episodes, Philip Jackson co-stars in this movie-length feature based on Christie's like-named 1926 novel as a rather sturdy, down-to-earth incarnation of Chief Inspector Japp; but unlike in other episodes, neither Pauline Moran (Poirot's epitome of a secretary, Miss Lemon) nor Hugh Fraser (Captain Hastings) make an appearance here; owing to the fact that this particular story takes place at a time when Poirot has -- rather prematurely, as it will turn out -- decided to retire to a village named King's Abbot: an archetypal English village like those that later became so crucial to Christie's Miss Marple mysteries (the first of which, "Muder at the Vicarage," dates from 1930), where the detective is resolved to, henceforth, devote his life to the singular pursuit of growing the perfect vegetable marrow!
Story-wise, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" is one of the most remarkable entries in all of Christie's canon, not least because of its completely unexpected turntable conclusion -- which is, surprisingly enough, maintained extremely well in this adaptation, by means of a simple but very effective directorial slight of hand.
As the story's title indicates, the case itself centers around Roger Ackroyd, an industrialist, the richest man in King's Abbot and "more impossibly like a country squire than any country squire could really be," as village doctor James Sheppard describes him in the novel. When he is found murdered, Poirot finds himself compelled to step out of his retirement after all, to investigate Ackroyd's death ... as well as its connection to that of Ackroyd's friend, the only recently-widowed Mrs. Ferrars.
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