Marple: Ordeal by Innocence (2007) (TV)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Moira Armstrong

Writer:

Stewart Harcourt (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Miss Marple is invited to the wedding of a friend, but the gaieties are interrupted when a stranger...

Plot Keywords:

Miss Marple | Murder | Adoptive Mother | Rowboat | Suicide

Cast

Geraldine McEwan	...	Miss Marple
Juliet Stevenson	...	Gwenda
Denis Lawson	...	Leo Argyle
Alison Steadman	...	Kirsten Lindstrom
Richard Armitage	...	Philip Durrant
Stephanie Leonidas	...	Hester Argyle
Lisa Stansfield	...	Mary Durrant
Burn Gorman	...	Jacko Argyle
Jane Seymour	...	Rachel Argyle
Tom Riley	...	Bobby Argyle
Reece Shearsmith	...	Inspector Huish
Julian Rhind-Tutt	...	Dr Arthur Calgary (as Julian Rhind Tutt)
Bryan Dick	...	Micky Argyle
Gugu Mbatha-Raw	...	Tina Argyle (as Gugu Mbatha Raw)
Andrea Lowe	...	Maureen

Also Known As:

Agatha Christie - Marple: Ordeal by Innocence (Australia) (DVD title)
Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence (USA) (new title)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Nether Winchendon House, Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Agatha Christie

This Series Keeps Sinking Lower, If That's Possible

I watched "Ordeal by Innocence" for the first time last night on PBS. Again, a group of scriptwriters, who think they can do better than Agatha Christie, have slaughtered another one of her books. Again, the "mystery" does not engage the watcher because the characters are not developed enough to show any remotely interesting drama. Again, the title is misleading from the start because this is not Agatha Christie's mystery as she wrote it and it's unrecognizable to the book. While I wouldn't have a problem with some changes and even looked forward to this series in the beginning, it's just a dreadful mess.

As I've watched this Miss Marple series unfold, I've notice that they've made Miss Marple more frail, more feeble, more twittering and twinkling as time goes by. This is both a physical and intellectual transformation. In Bertram's Hotel (shown just before this one), she looked very poor indeed. In "Ordeal" (appropriately named), she's dressed like a homeless waif and acts like she's suffering from early onset Alzheimer's. This crew does not allow Geralding McEwan to show the intelligence and cunning that Miss Marple had, even as an elderly spinster. The degradation of her character as time goes by is shocking. Her makeup is dreadful and makes her look even more like a simpleton. One of my favorite mystery characters and few Females in the mystery genre, is disappearing. If you watched "Bertram's Hotel," you'll know this is a truism, because they actually pushed Miss Marple aside to let the young maid do the detection and summation of the crime.

A new group bought controlling interest in Agatha Christie Ltd, so that explains the difference between previous and current productions. Obviously the group owning rights to Christie's books are mindless, unimaginable twits.