Agatha (1979) User Reviews

Imaginative tale of the true Agatha Christie mystery

[Filmtribute · 7/10 · 20 July 2001]

This quirky tale of Dame Agatha Christie's eleven-day disappearance in December1926 is a speculative account of the mystery, combining a romantic interlude, suicide attempt and desperate race to avert the loss of the world's most popular `Queen of Crime'. The film is not exactly in the style of a Christie plot or typical of one, as there are none of the trademark multiple corpses that usually litter her storylines.

With her marriage on the rocks after being asked for a divorce, following closely upon the death of her mother, Agatha Christie seeks refuge from her coldly indifferent husband (a very apt Timothy Dalton), in the North Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate. With the whole country looking for her, Dustin Hoffman is the American reporter, writing for an English paper, who finds, and then seeks to help, her. The difference in stature between the leading protagonists makes for an amusingly incongruous sight on the dance floor, and wisely the invitation to dance the Charleston together is declined. Although Dustin Hoffman's strident journalist strikes a jarring note, Vanessa Redgrave sensitively displays a troubled, if rather elegant, Agatha Christie.

Helen Morse (Picnic at Hanging Rock; Caddie) is delightful as Evelyn Crawley who befriends Agatha, and is very discriminating in her choice of men, making an interesting observation on the unrealistic expectation (by both sexes) of men's fidelity, when she sagely states `Hardly seems worth it. Men change so, that's why choosing is important. Well we can't just let things happen to us.' The fine talents of Timothy West are also involved as the diligent deputy chief constable who withstands Colonel Christie's attempts to quash the hunt for his wife.

When, as expected, her husband's mistress also arrives in Harrogate, Agatha, who had been using her surname as a pseudonym whilst unconvincingly trying to pass herself off as a widow recently returned from South Africa, begins to plot an elaborate revenge. A large part of the film is given to scene setting with nice observations of English class snobbery and a time past. The final part of the film then changes gear from its languorous pace and moves into thriller mode with a race against time.

A fine sense of period detail and Vittorio Storaro's beautifully crafted cinematography enhance this film, with its gentle evocation of the 1920's gentility taking the spa waters for the relief of their multifarious ailments. The famed Victorian architecture borrows from Bath as well as Harrogate, along with York's railway station, and the Old Swan Hotel and Royal Baths are given full promotional treatment.

Although Agatha Christie returned to her husband her marriage finally ended two years later.

In the UK video copies are available through Blackstar and Amazon.

premise has so many different possibilities

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 8 January 2017]

It's a famous real life case. Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days in December 1926. For some, she never explained it convincingly and this is a fictional account of those days. Col. Archibald Christie (Timothy Dalton) asks his wife Agatha Christie (Vanessa Redgrave) for a divorce so that he can marry his secretary Nancy Neele. Agatha is under tremendous stress and desperate to keep her husband. When American reporter Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman) arrives at her doors for a scheduled interview, the colonel sends him away. Agatha's abandoned car is later found and the search is on.

The fictionalization gives the scriptwriter a blank slate. It could have gone a million different ways from the outlandish to the poignant. This doesn't do much of anything and that is the most disappointing aspect. I don't care about Stanton or the Colonel or the search. I would love to follow only Agatha but she just spends her time at a spa. It's probably the least intriguing destination although it's fun to have her do research during her stay. I don't find her budding relationship with Stanton based on mutual lies that compelling. Despite the great acting power available, it's not until well into the second half before something interesting happens.

Reasonably engrossing account of what may have happened to Agatha Christie during her unexplained disappearance in 1926.

[barnabyrudge · 6/10 · 29 December 2013]

In December 1926, the queen of crime fiction, Agatha Christie, vanished for almost two weeks, provoking a massive manhunt and a frenzy of press activity (speculating that she had perhaps been murdered or committed suicide). To this day, the full truth of her peculiar disappearance remains a mystery. In this 1979 film from director Michael Apted – working from a script by Kathleen Tynan and Arthur Hopcraft – a possible solution to the mystery is offered.

The shy and insecure Agatha Christie (Vanessa Redgrave) is devastated when her husband Archibald (Timothy Dalton) declares that he no longer loves her and wants a divorce so that he can be free to marry his lover, secretary Nancy Neele (Celia Gregory). Initially reluctant to grant his wish, Agatha goes into an emotional meltdown… despite this, Archibald leaves her behind at the house and heads off to socialise elsewhere. Later, Agatha disappears suddenly following a car accident. The police and locals gather in huge numbers to search the surrounding countryside for clues, bewildered as to why she should vanish so completely in the wake of the crash. Has she wandered into the nearby marsh, dazed and confused, and drowned? Has she taken her own life? Has her husband murdered her and used the accident as a smokescreen to conceal his crime? In truth, Agatha has fled to a health spa in Harrogate where she has signed in under a false name, 'becoming' one Teresa Neele, a distant South African relative of her husband's illicit lover Nancy. Here she spends her days scribbling ideas in a small notebook – but what exactly is she planning? A new book? A suicide? Perhaps a revenge-murder? Besotted American journalist Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman) is determined to find Agatha. He tracks her down to the spa in Harrogate and, under a false name, woos her and finds himself falling in love. Can he get to the bottom of her tangled scheme and fragile psychological state before it's too late?

Agatha is a good-looking film (courtesy, in no small part, of legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro). The 1920s period detail is immaculately captured in the impressive sets, styles and costumes. The mystery at the heart of the story is nicely handled overall, with the truth of Agatha's plan cleverly concealed almost all the way to the climax. At various stages it looks like she might be plotting to kill Nancy out of anger, to take her own life out of depression, or maybe even to humiliate her husband out of revenge. The dynamics of Agatha's state of mind and her intentions generate sufficient intrigue to keep viewer's guessing throughout. Where the film falls down somewhat is in the relationship between Agatha and the American journalist Wally Stanton. Redgrave and Hoffman are perfectly fine in the roles… but it's what draws them together, what makes them click as a couple, that never comes across as sufficiently developed or believable. The characters are not fleshed out fully enough to make the audience care, nor feel totally convinced, about their predicament. Nevertheless, this mysterious and intriguing real-life event provides a pretty good premise for a film. Yes, it has its flaws, but Agatha remains an interesting and reasonably well-made film, certainly worth 100 minutes of anybody's time.

Agatha Christie's portrayal of someone who tastes loss

[mike-544 · 2 September 1999]

The title of this English movie refers to one of the world's most famous writer, Agatha Christie, who, in 1926, left her home without warning and created a public speculation about her fate. The director, Michael Apted, gives us a great amount of solemnity, using it to balance with the most trivial of human behaviors. Dustin Hoffman is rather theatrical in his portrayal of a famous journalist that falls in love with the fragile and dependent writer and Vanessa Redgrave captures perfectly the loss and solitude of the character. And suddenly, when the movie itself was imbued in its quietness, becomes something close to a thriller, a race against time, and its cleverness never compensates the unexpected loss. But it is a beautiful film, carefully constructed and with some good dialogue. Victorio Storaro's cinematography is excellent as usual and Timothy Dalton probably gives his finest performance as a rigid and paternal husband who doesn't allow his wife to act as one. "Would you care for a kiss?", asks Agatha. I would say yes, but only to this Agatha .

Hickory, Dickery, Shock.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 5 May 2015]

The two writers seem to have had the great idea of turning Agatha Christie's real life 1926 disappearance into a typical Agatha Christie tale. But twist it how they may, the historical facts don't fit too well into the fictional template.

Let's put it this way. In a typical Agatha Christie story, we are first introduced to a handful of characters, then an apparently impossible crime is committed, then the surprise solution comes at the end.

But in the case of Christie's disappearance, no crime is committed. Vanessa Redgrave, as Dame Agatha, is having trouble with her husband's infidelity and takes off, half blind with anguish, to find herself at a hotel specializing in electrical baths. Yes, electrical baths. People come from miles around to take the waters and get the electrical baths to improve their health and good looks.

There is a mystery -- what happened to her? -- but it's rather quickly solved by Dustin Hoffman as an American columnist anxious to sniff out her whereabouts and get a scoop. Under an alias, he joins her at the hotel and tries to insinuate himself into her confidence. He succeeds to an extent.

But as far as the viewer is concerned, there really is no mystery because we've followed Christie on her desperate attempt to escape her marital travails. The central third of the film is taken up with encounters between Hoffman and Redgrave. Hoffman finds himself falling for Redgrave, but you need second sight to see it. There is no, well, no electricity between them. Except for one scene, Hoffman always is loud and intrusive and Redgrave reticent and receding. What's worse, she's about one foot taller than he is. When they dance, it's like watching figures in a cartoon.

The big reveal at the end does come as a surprise but not the kind we might have been expecting. Redgrave is fooling around with the electronic junk that controls the current in the electrical bath. Why? We find out finally after a lot of inconsequential footage and it's an ingenious scheme but it fails. No crime is committed after all.

The most distinctive feature of the movie are the performances by Hoffman and Redgrave. Redgrave is tall and bony but what an actress. She conveys passion without the hint of an explosion. And Hoffman has never given a more stylized performance -- stiff, stilted, precise, with the automatic movements of an animatronic figure from Disneyland's Hall of Presidents. And that voice! He's an American but his locution, his whole demeanor, is British. If he ever blinked on screen, I missed it. Maybe I was blinking at the same time. Both of the performances can take your breath away.

The score is by Johnny Mandel ("Suicide is Painless," "The Shadow of Your Smile.") It's melodious, melancholy, and lends itself to all sort of genres, like "Point Blank," a unique noir.

It's easy enough to watch and it's entertaining because of the presence of Hoffman and Redgrave. I wish they hadn't tried to copy Agatha Christie.

Ingenious

[JasparLamarCrabb · 7/10 · 9 May 2015]

An ingenious supposition of what happened to the writer Agatha Christie during the 11 days she disappeared in the 1920s. In this Michael Apted directed film, Christie checked into a British spa in pursuit of the woman her husband was having an affair with. Vanessa Redgrave plays Christie and Dustin Hoffman is an American reporter who is on to her. Hoffman is woefully miscast but Redgrave is brilliant, playing Christie as a neurotic introvert sorely lacking any self-esteem. What she does have is a very sinister imagination, which she puts to good use. The film is an exquisitely shot (by Vittorio Storaro no less) thriller with great production values & a first-rate supporting cast, including Timothy Dalton as Christie's callous husband. A flop when first released, this film is in dire need of rediscovery.

Agatha Christie meets "The Twilight Zone"

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 10 June 2006]

Until I saw "Agatha", I had never even heard of the story of Agatha Christie disappearing - or hiding - in 1926. The movie offers a possibility of what might have happened, portraying the author (Vanessa Redgrave) secretly checking into a health spa under a false name, while detective Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman) investigates.

I will admit that this movie is nothing special. If anything, it's sort of just a way to pass time. But it is interesting not only learning about this part of history, but seeing this speculation of what might have happened (the movie reminds us that this is only speculation). The only other cast member whom I recognized was Timothy Dalton as Agatha's husband Archibald. Not a masterpiece by any stretch, but worth seeing nevertheless.

Pure speculation

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 11 September 2016]

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best. Maybe Agatha Christie back in 1926 just wanted to get a way for a bit and at the same time give her estranged husband a bit of a bad time. To this day we don't know what happened to the famed author for those dozen days in 1926 when she left her rather expensive ride abandoned and disappeared. Leaves a lot of room for speculation.

Which is what Agatha is, pure speculation. During her disappearance where shortly before she learned that husband Timothy Dalton had been out stepping with his secretary, Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha had an appointment with American gossip columnist Dustin Hoffman who's a Walter Winchell type and so gauche as versus these very well mannered and upper class British.

Hoffman turns an investigative reporter, something Winchell never was as he was always relying on press agent tips and proves better than the police as personified by Timothy West.

But this is all whole cloth folks, Christie's heirs attempted to sue.

It's a nice ensemble piece of work Agatha with both Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman giving most believable performances.

Well, it could have happened that way.

Much ado about nothing

[Maciste_Brother · 4/10 · 16 May 2007]

I waited a long time to see Agatha. I remember seeing posters for this film at movie theaters when I was a kid and was intrigued about it ever since. For some reason I never happen to catch it, well, until now. I finally watched it on VHS (it's not available on DVD as of this writing). What a letdown. I said "That's it?" when the credits rolled at the end. I couldn't believe what a little, insignificant film it turned out to be. There are great things in it: the cast, lead by the magnificent Vanessa Redgrave. There's also Timothy Dalton and Dustin Hoffman. I always wondered how were they able to cast Hoffman, who's very short, against Vanessa, who's 6 feet tall I believe. Well, I know now: awkwardly. The cinematography by the great Vittorio Storaro is simply stunning and the music is excellent. But the story leaves a lot to be desired because, well, there's really no story.

It's just an idea and a haphazardly conceived idea: after Agatha's husband told her he wants a divorce, the depressed mystery writer disappears from the public eye but goes to a health spa under another name and becomes obsessed with a device at the spa she wants to turn into an electric chair, and devises a plot in order for her to die from that electric chair but without making it look like it was a suicide. That's it. So according to this film, Agatha wanted to kill herself without making it look like a suicide but she obviously failed to do so as she was still alive and kicking after reemerging from her short-lived disappearance. Hoffman is the American who flirts with Agatha and eventually becomes part of the flimsy story.

If I had known the story was this simple, I probably wouldn't have bothered with it. The production is grade A through and through but the screenplay is pure hokum.

Liked the film; disliked the concept

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 11 May 2015]

We're all used to films that are supposed to be historical or biographical and take wide liberties. But this film takes that to a new level -- it takes a real event (the disappearance of Agatha Christie) and ADMITTEDLY makes up a totally fictional story to fit the shell. If you want to take liberties with a true story, okay, I can accept that to make a story more interesting. But to TOTALLY fictionalize a story is akin to telling a lie. Why not just make the story without connecting it to real people and real events.

On the other hand, despite that moral reservation, I actually liked the movie. It's interesting fiction. It's richly filmed in rather lavish settings of the era.

The key here is the acting, more than the story. Vanessa Redgrave depressingly good as depressed Agatha Christie. Many actresses could not have carried this film. I've always liked Dustin Hoffman, but here I feel he's a bit too formally reserved as his newspaperman character. Timothy Dalton is excellent as the dastardly husband of Christie.

Here's the problem -- SPOILER WARNING -- the film, while claiming to be fiction, essentially accuses Christie of attempting to commit suicide by having her husband's mistress unknowingly murder her. No wonder Christie descendants sued, twice (unsuccessfully). It just doesn't seem kosher.

"Did your late husband ever betray you?" .. "No, he isn't--wasn't--that kind of man."

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 11 September 2016]

Pushy American journalist joins the search in 1926 Britain for mystery writer Agatha Christie, who has disappeared upon learning of her husband's extramarital affair, leaving behind a cryptic note taken to be suicidal. Exceedingly handsome production (plagued with troubles behind-the-scenes) is a fictionalized account of a relative non-event, the secret of which Christie apparently took to her grave. Screenwriters Kathleen Tynan and Arthur Hopcraft seem to think they're writing a mystery story along the lines of something the real-life Agatha might have concocted (at least it was marketed that way) but, with so little happening, attention falls on the performances of leads Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave. Hoffman, exhaling cigarette smoke through his nostrils, is almost intentionally unappealing; he looks tiny standing next to his lanky co-star, and is unbearably mannered and stiff (it's one of his weakest performances). Redgrave looks stunning in her elaborate, Oscar-nominated '20s ensembles, and almost manages to create a character even though she's working from next to nothing (the picture is a showcase for her marvelously well-attired look and the graceful way she carries herself--all externals). The direction by Michael Apted is sleek and smooth, relying on the decorative detail to hold our interest. ** from ****

Under-appreciated gem

[lucy-19 · 9/10 · 3 March 2006]

This is one of my favourite films, and not just because I am a fan of Dame Agatha's books. The actors are wonderful: Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha herself, Timothy Dalton as her rotter husband (Christie sowed clues about his ugly personality through her later books and plays), the journalist in his WWI greatcoat, the guests and billiard-players at the hotel, even the troupe of entertainers in the park. Dustin Hoffman is great, and his falling for Agatha is quite believable. I love it when he recites from the Spoon River Anthology when he meets her in a grim Victorian graveyard (great atmosphere and use of location). The evocation of period is spot on: all the right architecture, clothes, hats and manners. There's plenty of humour - eg when the journo is whisked away from his steak and chips, and Redgrave and Hoffman dance together. It's a complex story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. There have recently been some very lame programmes about the author on British television. Forget them, and watch this film.

OK speculative film about Christie's "disappearance"

[smatysia · 6/10 · 12 January 2006]

This film is about the "disappearance" of Agatha Christie in 1926. It matches what is known about this episode pretty well. What happened was that Mrs. Christie's husband was having an affair, and making little effort to hide it. Her car was found abandoned near a lake, with her ID and other possessions strewn about. She checked into a health spa under the surname of her husband's mistress for about eleven days. There was a big uproar in the press, and some of the spa's other guests noticed the likeness to Christie of the stranger there but she just laughed it off. When she returned she claimed amnesia, but no one believed that. She never spoke of the episode again, and it is not mentioned in her autobiography. (There is no evidence that her husband's mistress was at that spa.) At least the film says up-front that the story told is "speculation". In these times of historical fabrications by the likes of Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg, that is a bit refreshing. Having said all that, this is an OK film. Vanessa Redgrave does her usual top-notch acting. It was fun seeing Dustin Hoffman Hitting on her, and dancing with her, him being at least six inches shorter.

A Solution without a Puzzle

[JamesHitchcock · 4/10 · 27 February 2009]

I am not normally a great fan of films which offer a purported solution to a real-life mystery. I found David Fincher's recent "Zodiac", about a real-life serial killer who terrorised San Francisco during the sixties and seventies, dull, and did not like the way in which it reversed the presumption of innocence by proclaiming that the killer was a real (although conveniently dead) individual who was suspected of the crimes but never put on trial. Then we have all those attempts to answer old chestnuts like "Who was Jack the Ripper?" and "What is the truth about the assassination of President Kennedy?", films which are generally longer on speculation than on fact and which rarely shed much light on the mysteries in question.

"Agatha" is another film of this type. It revolves around the disappearance of novelist Agatha Christie for eleven days in December 1926; she disappeared from her Berkshire home and was later found staying under an assumed name in a hotel in the Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate. The affair gave rise to a frenzy of media speculation at the time, and Christie never said what she had been doing during those eleven days or offered an explanation for her disappearance. The fictitious explanation offered by the film is that Christie, who had just discovered that her husband Archibald was having an affair, went to Harrogate in order to commit suicide but was prevented from doing so by Wally Stanton, a (presumably) fictitious American journalist who befriended her.

The best thing about the film is its lavish recreation of 1920s Britain, but I found it had little else to offer. Neither of its stars, Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman, seem to be stretched by their material. What surprises me is why the producers should have felt that this particular story was worthy of being made into a film. As a romance? There is some mild flirtation between Agatha and Wally, but this is kept very low-key. As a thriller? Hardly. When the film was shown in cinemas in 1979 Agatha Christie had died only three years earlier at the age of eighty-five. Most of the audience, therefore, would have been well aware that, whatever might have happened to her in Harrogate, she had not come to any serious harm, and there would consequently have been little suspense.

The question the film raises is not so much "What happened to Agatha Christie in 1926?" but rather "Does anyone still care what happened to Agatha Christie in 1926?" At least the Ripper murders and the Kennedy assassination, to judge by the multitude of books and websites devoted to them, still arouse plenty of controversy today. There is no such interest in the Christie disappearance, which was in all likelihood the result of emotional stress consequent upon the breakdown of her marriage. This film is not so much a puzzle without a solution as a solution without a puzzle. 4/10

Agatha

[Smalling-2 · 18 November 1999]

In 1926, when her marriage with a stiff colonel has run down, Agatha Christie mysteriously vanishes. In the middle of both police and public investigation after the famous writer, an American journalist finds her in a Harrogate spa-hotel where, under a pseudonym, she prepares an elaborate revenge against her husband's lover.

Straightly fictitious solution to a famous and still unsolved real-life disappearance, with more attention to gleaming period detail and chillingly murky atmosphere than to suspense or credibility, while Redgrave's finely sensible portrait is downed by the somewhat strained and out-of-place casting of Hoffman as love interest. Eventually, this glossily romantic thriller has its own fascinations and is always well worth looking at, but the mystery is simply not as startling or revealing as one would expect from the Grande Dame of whodunit.

A speculative and evocative period drama , based on a true anecdote

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 11 January 2023]

Agreeable picture dealing with Agatha Christie's (Vanessa Redgrave) still unexplained disappearance and the fictional American reporter's efforts to find her . After suffering a heartbreak when her husband (Timothy Dalton) asks for a divorce to marry the employee Nancy Steele , Agatha disappears taking refuge in a spa under a false identity . The police (Timothy West) and some of her followers undertake a relentless search to find the writer , but it will be an American journalist called Wally Stanton (Dustin Hoffman) who will be closest to her to discover her intentions . A fictional solution to the real mystery of Agatha Christie's disappearance !.

Supposedly based on a true event in the life of mystery novelist Agatha Christie during in which she disappeared for eleven days in 1926 , this is a moderately effective thriller . On December 4, after publishing his novel ¨the death of Roger Ackroyd¨, its author, the very famous writer of mystery novels Agatha Christie disappears. The scriptwriters fabled about this fact and the author's descendants sued the production companies trying to prevent its premiere . They lost the trial and Michael Apted 's film was eventually released in the US a year after its completion . Main and support cast are frankly well. Vanessa Redgrave is good in the title role , but Dustin Hoffman is miscast as the American journalist on her trail . Unfortunately, Hoffman and Redgrave generate few sparks and there's not chemistry enough . They're well accompanied by a nice British secondary cast , such as : Timothy West , Helen Morse , Alan Badel , Celia Gregory , Paul Brooke , Carolyn Pickles , Tony Britton and Timothy Dalton pre- James Bond films.

It contains a glamorous and brilliant cinematography by the great Italian cameraman Vittorio Storaro. As well as lively and sensitive musical score by Johnny Mandel , including catching song : Close Enough for Love sung by Pattie Brooks and Lyrics by Paul Williams . The motion picture was professionally directed by recently deceased Michael Apted . He was good writer/ producer/director of several successes , such as : ¨The word is not enough¨, ¨Gorillas in the mist¨ , ¨Class action¨, ¨Nell¨, ¨Enigma¨, ¨The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader¨, among others . Rating : 6.5/10 , above average and worthwhile seeing , the whole family will enjoy this film . It's a very likeable mystery/thriller movie and enormously appealing for knowing Agatha Christie life. Overall this is a really enjoyable movie . If you are familiar with the story, then there are no real surprises, but makes up for it with stunning interpretations from Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman.

Fiction Most Frail

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 13 November 2023]

The world's most celebrated mystery novelist went missing in 1926, creating a mystery of its own. No one ever learned what happened to Agatha Christie and why. This film steps into the void, providing a fictional explanation.

I had never heard of this film. When I saw it was showing on TCM, I decided to watch because of its stars, Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave. Miss Redgrave plays Agatha and Mr. Hoffman plays an American newspaper columnist named Wally Stanton who happens to be nearby when the novelist disappears, so he investigates, looking for a story.

Give the film credit for its portrayal of time and place. The sets and costumes feel authentic. But that is not enough if a film is to be really engaging.

Wally Stanton, who is a fan of Christie's whodunits, is a clever man. He is also intense, direct and determined. He insinuates himself into Agatha's life, while she tries to keep him at arm's length, the way she is with most people. Redgrave's Agatha is reserved, wounded (by her husband), and perhaps naïve. We see Agatha making notes as one would if planning a murder mystery. We see Mr. Stanton desperately trying to gain her confidence, while following leads that might give him insight into Agatha's intentions.

But the film falls short. It's no surprise that a story about two tight-lipped characters might not reveal much below the surface. The ending tells us to believe that something deeper happened, though we did not see it. As Hitchcock might say: show us, don't tell us.

I suspect that neither Hoffman nor Redgrave count this film among their best. When one considers the possible fictions that might have "explained" Ms. Christie's disappearance, this one feels weak by comparison.

Quick-paced mystery/suspense

[PeachesIR · 7/10 · 3 March 2023]

"Agatha" tells the story of what may have happened in the 1920s when famous murder mystery novelist Agatha Christie went missing for eleven days, triggering a nationwide search for her by police and frenzied media coverage. Vanessa Redgrave plays Christie at her lowest moment: She has discovered that her husband, Archie, is cheating on her with his secretary and wants a divorce. This legendary actress shows us how distraught and anguished she was at this time, as well as insecure about her attractiveness (although Redgrave is stunning) and aging, and as calculating as we expect from this legendary mystery writer.

Dustin Hoffman (who also produced) plays celebrity American columnist Wally Stanton, who is a huge fan of Christie's books and doggedly searches for her to unearth the truth and get the scoop for his column. Timothy Dalton (Redgrave's real-life partner) plays the handsome but somewhat odious Archie. The rest of the supporting cast is good as well.

It's an entertaining movie, seems quick paced and even a bit short, with the classic '20s costumes and emerging technologies playing their own part in the suspense. One amusing detail: Redgrave was one of that era's tallest actresses, and she plays opposite Hoffman, a very short actor. I think the oddness of it works, because it's not the usual movie stereotype. Christie here seems like an aging woman who's unsure of herself, while Stanton is the most confident and assertive guy you've ever seen.

Hoffman is a very unhappy character

[malcolmgsw · 3/10 · 1 March 2011]

At the time this film was made Dustin Hoffmans career was on a downward curve.He was at the time managed by Jarvis Astaire,who is one of the credited producers.The part as originally written was very small.However Hoffman was persuaded to take the part on the basis of it being written up.This is what happened.So that you have long stretches of the film where Hoffman is not present and then further stretches where he is ever present.The problem is that where the film should really be about the disappearance of Agatha and what is happening to her it becomes all about Hoffman trying to find her.It has to be said that when they do meet up it is rather laughable with the diminutive Hoffman overshadowed by the towering Redgrave.This really must be one of the worst films made by either actor in their distinguished careers.Not long after the film Astaire and Hoffman ended their business relationship

Amazingly boring....

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 7 May 2015]

"Agatha" is a film that SHOULD have been interesting...yet somehow the whole thing is under-emoted and dull throughout. I had a difficult time paying attention to the film because of this.

The story is a piece of fiction based on fact. Back in the 1920s, apparently it was in vogue for famous people to disappear and then suddenly re-appear. However, unlike the disappearance of Amee Semple McPherson, exactly where she went and what she did is uncertain. All we know is that Agatha Christie disappeared and reappeared and she MIGHT have been abducted...or not! The film attempts to explain this mystery with their own baseless theory...one that is very unexciting--so much so that you wonder why they bothered to make this film in the first place. Overall, it has lovely costumes and a nice look but is amazingly uninvolving and dull. It also has a car crash scene that is very poorly done.

Excellent, but little known film.

[robert-259-28954 · 8/10 · 15 September 2015]

Michael Apted created a truly beautiful movie in this period piece. Watching it was an exercise in restraint, beauty, and remarkable taste, each frame seemingly more beautiful than the next. Again, Ms. Redgrave delivers a nuanced but powerful portrayal of this equally powerful mystery writer, who's real life disappearance was thoughtfully imagined in this thought-provoking film. Perhaps the choice of Dustin Hoffman was a bit of a stretch, when his physical height often seemed a little incongruous combined with the extreme height of the statuesque Redgrave, especially during the single love scene. That said, Hoffman's performance was more than up for the task, revealing a degree of stoic steadfastness and street smarts that makes the entire enterprise move along quite well, in spite of its generally slower pace, which English films generally employ to good effect. Never having heard of or seen this film before, catching it on TCM was an interesting and captivating delight.

Forget the movie... it's secondary...

[billdedman-1 · 5/10 · 30 November 2008]

Go, instead, for the gorgeous theme music by Johnny Mandel (Emily, The Shadow of your Smile -theme from "The Sandpiper"-, A Time For Love,) which Paul Willians put words to after they titled it "Close Enough for Love." It has become a jazz standard and has been recorded by every worthwhile artist playing or singing jazz. It's one of Johnny Mandel's best efforts, and that's saying a LOT! Stan Getz has a very nice version (instumental, of course.) The lyrics are some of Paul Williams' best. Starts out, "You and I, an un-matched pair..." Not perfect, no, but "close enough, for love." Bittersweet words... I thought the music, alone was well worth the price of admission. I rented the movie as soon as it came out on VHS (this was 28 years ago(!), and made an audio cassette of the theme so I could learn to play it. Songs that good don't come along very often...

Fascinating journey

[Movie_Man 500 · 6 March 2002]

Well photographed, carefully edited film, swimming in supposition. Almost quietly performed. Overall sense of loss and heartache gives further readings into Christie's books a tinged sense of sadness. Mannered but sympathetic acting by the 2 strong leads, balance well off the 2 sort of "villians": the snobby mistress and the caddish husband, played with icy detachment by the future and all too brief James Bond. The stunning visuals look especially nice on a large screen.

Only thing good in this move is Timothy Dalton

[chrisaltman-1 · 5/10 · 26 January 2008]

I bought the movie because you can't even rent it these days. Being a HUGE Timothy Dalton fan it was worth the money. But the story is weak and there is no chemistry between Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman. I'm quite confused as to why Hoffman was chosen to play this part. He certainly doesn't work with this material or this cast. Don't get me wrong.... I think Dustin Hoffman is a FABULOUS actor but just not in this movie. Even though Timothy Dalton is in the movie all too short a time, it's worth seeing if you're a FAN. He's gorgeous (as always!) and well worth watching. I believe it was made just after the mini-series Centennial so I see his physical portrayal of Oliver Seccombe in his character to some extent. Dalton fans.......check it out!

Fiction About A Human Being At Its Worst

[jromanbaker · 3/10 · 29 October 2021]

I was not expecting to be confronted by an extreme horror film, and the mild certification given it back in 1979 beggar's belief. Directed in a painting by numbers style by Apted it has the sole merit of having Vanessa Redgrave in a part worthy of her, but made unworthy by the script. Horror which was so prevalent from the 1970's onwards also had to intrude upon this make believe story of Agatha Christie's disappearance in the December of 1926. The arts department goes into overdrive with the Charleston, Cloche hats and a shot of horses mingling with cars and to a certain extent this works in a pedestrian sort of way. Timothy Dalton is wasted in the part of her faithless husband, and for so-called romance Dustin Hoffman plays the part of an American who tries to solve the reason why she had disappeared. I found his acting adequate and Redgrave is given second place on the posters and in the star billing. A shame on anyone who decided on that as Redgrave is arguably the finest actor British cinema and theatre has ever known, and in my opinion she should have been given first place. As for the fictional ' reality ' of the plot the first half seemed plausible until Hoffman comes on to the scene and takes over. Slowly a plot develops which I will not give away, far worse in violence than anything Agatha Christie wrote, perhaps with the exception of ' And then there were None ' occasionally made into equally shoddy films and television adaptations, unfolds itself. I will just mention that for those like me who despise depictions of Capital Punishment in all its forms should avoid this film. I cannot give any excuses for the making of this rarely seen film and have given it 3 stars for Redgrave who deserved much better material.