'Nemesis' is one of Christie's last books and by this stage in her career the narrative tended to ramble and there were plot-holes aplenty. That said, the central plot line is sound and many of the characters are well written but it could be argued that any screen adaptation might justify a little 'tinkering'. The BBC tinkered in a good way as part of their Joan Hickson series, retaining the most interesting characters, cutting out the less interesting and tightening the story - it was one of my favourites of the series! As expected by now, the 'new' McEwen version indulges in a great deal more tinkering. Indeed, this film bears very little resemblance at all to the source material. This time the really interesting characters have either been thrown out altogether (Miss Temple, the Professor, the two lady bodyguards) or radically altered (tragically the 3 sisters - now two nuns). Stephen Churchett has retained the duller members of the coach tour but because they don't have much to do in the book, this have given him scope to completely re-write their characters (the Lumleys and the Waddys). Miss Marple's nephew Raymond comes along though he's really not needed (I didn't like the fake nephew Lionel added to the Hickson version either) and Churchett gives us possibly the most irritating made up character ever in Ronni Ancona's screeching Miss Dalrymple (why didn't someone kill her?). There are too many changes to the story to even begin to mention. The sad thing is that this travesty in no way improves upon the original story - it's clunky, dull, improbable and (as always with these new adaptations) packed full of too much incident.
As always with the 'Marple' series it looks wonderful and has the usual starry cast but no-one really shines on this outing. Richard E Grant is always worth watching and so are Amanda Burton and Anne Reid but their talents are terribly wasted here. Geraldine McEwen annoyed me this time and I was extremely irritated at how no-one questioned why both she and Raymond were questioning the suspects along with the plodding, comic policeman. The whole thing shows a tremendous lack of respect for Christie's work. Why bother filming these things if the people making them think that the stories are such rubbish they have to be re-written? I've enjoyed some of these McEwen 'Marples' but not this one - its a stinker!
As always with the 'Marple' series it looks wonderful and has the usual starry cast but no-one really shines on this outing. Richard E Grant is always worth watching and so are Amanda Burton and Anne Reid but their talents are terribly wasted here. Geraldine McEwen annoyed me this time and I was extremely irritated at how no-one questioned why both she and Raymond were questioning the suspects along with the plodding, comic policeman. The whole thing shows a tremendous lack of respect for Christie's work. Why bother filming these things if the people making them think that the stories are such rubbish they have to be re-written? I've enjoyed some of these McEwen 'Marples' but not this one - its a stinker!