follow JD on Twitter at @Misadventurer
Never would I have guessed, that in 2017 there would be two films released within a month of each other, based on Agatha Christie novels. November saw Kenneth Branaugh’s “Murder on the Orient Express” (our review of that linked here) while in December we get “Crooked House” – Both are wildly different in almost every way, aside from each being a Period Murder Mystery, Orient Express taking place in the 1930s, and Cooked House, being the 1960s.
In Crooked House, we follow Max Irons’s “Charles Hayward” a Police inspector who has a history with Sophia de Haviland, played by Stefanie Martini, the eldest granddaughter of a business magnate that married into British Aristocracy, who was found dead. Sophia’s family wants to keep the public out of the family’s affairs, though foul play is suspected. Almost everyone in the family has motives, but who killed the patriarch, Aristide Leonides?
Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks plays Brenda, The Trophy Wife, a former Las Vegas dancer, who had only been married to Aristide for a short time and his Will on file has her listed as the sole beneficiary. The most likely suspect, as she has the most to gain from his passing, though if she is found guilty she gets nothing, but the jail sentence. Christina’s performance wasn’t as nuanced as Joan Holloway, as she had done in the past, she was more one-note as a gin mollified moll in mourning.
In the case that The Wife Did It, the inheritance would go to Aristide’s sons, Roger (Christian McKay) and Philip (Julian Sands) neither of whom made their father proud, one squandering away his allowances, the other running the family business into the ground, both are unlikable in their own ways, and their wives, Eustace (Preston Nyman) and Magda (Gillian Anderson) have varying degrees of Lady Macbeth-esque tendencies.
Glenn Close as the sister in law of the fallen patriarch, Lady Edith, keeps her distance from much of the rest of the family but is just as mercurial with the inspector, however, she seems to be conducting an investigation of her own. There’s also Josephine, Sophia’s little sister, her Nanny and her tutor who has been seen having dalliances with Brenda, just to round out the suspect pool.
Cutting to the chase, Crooked House keeps you guessing to the bitter end, all the suspects seemingly are guilty of something, but the finale will leave a bad taste in your mouth. The film doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be, tonally different from scene to scene, just as each room in the house has a different theme.
There is an otherworldly ancientness to the estate when compared to the progress of the film’s modern 60’s world, there’s more Maltese Falcon, than Mod Squad as the grim scenes of police work clash with the scooter-riding jazz nightlife in a scene that feels entirely out of place than in the film. Director, Gilles Paquet-Brenner, is best known for his dark films, this neo-noir lacks any levity and drags its feet. Though this picture could find its audience with those who can’t pass up a puzzle. Otherwise, the audience for this whodunnit is a headscratcher.
rated 7/10
About Crooked House
In Agatha Christie’s most twisted tale, the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a wealthy patriarch is investigated by spy-turned-private-detective Charles Hayward (Max Irons), who is lured by his former lover to catch her grandfather’s murderer before Scotland Yard exposes dark family secrets. On the sprawling estate, amidst a poisonous atmosphere of bitterness, resentment and jealousy in a truly crooked house, Hayward encounters three generations of the dynasty, including a theater actress (Gillian Anderson), the old man’s widow 50 years his junior (Christina Hendricks), and the family matriarch Lady Edith de Haviland (Glenn Close).
Find out more about this film / book here http://www.agathachristie.com/film-and-tv/crooked-house
Based on Agatha Christie’s 1949 novel, Sony Pictures presents a brand new film adaptation of Crooked House directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and written by Julian Fellowes and Tim Rose Price.
