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Agatha Christie's Marple: Series 1 [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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Our Price: £20.74 (subject to change)
One Simple Question--Why?
Review date: 2005-06-17 Rating: 2 out of 10
Although this entire new series is hardly worth a gigabyte of virtual ink to review, I feel compelled to comment here as a devoted fan of Agatha Christie's formidable female sleuth. Most obviously, actress Joan Hickson playing Marple in the previous BBC series was the perfect embodiment of the character--combining a quiet strength; fierce intelligence; a dash of dry humor; and when required, an unemotional sense of justice unmoved by the sentimental. Although not all gems, each of the Hickson Marple films were both respectful of their source material and entertainingly executed. Point for point, it is precisely each of these merits that are grossly lacking in the new Marple series. It appears that as a whole, the current outings have been slickly, although not cleverly engineered to cater to the American TV-viewing market. While the cinematography and production/costume design are consistently excellent throughout, the British casts seem to have been encouraged to play their parts to caricatural extremes enough to render them into Clue game pieces. And that brings us to actress Geraldine McEwan's inane portrayal of the lead role. While certainly a competent actress, Miss McEwan's Marple constantly plays her scenes with a mischievous but vacuous grin, obliterating any sense of Christie's serious intention--that the seemingly polite spinster is in fact a personification of Nemesis, bringing evildoers to justice. And space here is too limited to even begin to list the senseless departures from the original (and purposeful!) storylines of Christie's novels. In short, having suffered through the McEwan Marples, one must ask the simple question as to why they even bothered.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Keeley Hawes
Geraldine McEwan
Robert Pugh
Cherie Lunghi
Christian Coulson
Director(s):
Recording label: Acorn Media
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
EAN: 9781569387641
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 1569387648
Number of items: 4
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2005-05-24
Universal product code (UPC): 054961764891
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 376 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005-01-02
Language: English (Original Language)