AND THEN THERE WERE NONE has all of this, but it just takes way too much time to get to it all. We go to an Agatha Christie mystery for the mystery, the fun and shady characters and the twists and turns taken before the truth is revealed. I can’t count the times I ended up looking at my phone to see what time it was while watching this film. I understand there are a lot of details that are in the book and scenes that are fleshed out like never before, but in the end, I feel that the point would have been made with a whole lot more clarity, not to mention with a whole lot more watch-ability had this been a regular lengthed film. The problem with AND THEN THERE WERE NONE is that, being a miniseries, it must fill out three entire hours with a story that I think could have been told in a stronger manner in half that time. Dermody in particular is fantastic as the central character, a nanny who feels out of place among the other guests who are considered the upper crust and adds a little bit of accessibility to the story as a whole. Everyone is polite, biting, and direct, which makes for some interesting verbal wordfighting when the cast is all gathered together. If you’re a fan of DOWNTON ABBEY or other PBS Masterpiece works, the acting caliber maintains that standard of excellence. With veteran actors Charles Dance and Sam Neill, and Noah Taylor adding thespian heft, the miniseries also highlights up and coming heavies Toby Stephens, the moustache twirling (even when he doesn’t have a moustache) Burn Gorman, and chiseled Aidan Turner, and introduces new stars in the making Maeve Dermody. Soon people start dropping like flies and it isn’t until two are left that the real truth comes to light.ĪND THEN THERE WERE NONE has a stellar cast. And while all of them believe to be strangers with one another, it turns out they are all connected in some mysterious way. Ten people are invited to a remote location-in this case it’s an island. As the mismatched group wait for the arrival of the hosts, the weather sours. Bu tI think the extended length of Agatha Christie’s most famous mystery, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, ends up shooting itself in the foot in the long run. Ten strangers are drawn away from their normal lives to an isolated rock off the Devon coast. I think that the HBO series adapting THE WATCHMEN would be awesome and even appreciated the attention to detail Zack Snyder realized in his overlong and flawed, but still entertaining adaptation of the same thing. While I can appreciate the extensive and detailed adaptation as much as the next guy. Starring Maeve Dermody, Charles Dance, Toby Stephens, Burn Gorman, Aidan Turner, Harley Gallacher, Miranda Richardson, Paul Chahidi, Sam Neill, Charlie Russell, Tom Clegg, Noah Taylor, Catherine Bailey, Ben Deery, Rob Heaps, Douglas Booth, Joseph Prowen, Daisy Waterstone, Christopher Hatherall, Anna Maxwell Martin, Margot Edwards Written by Sarah Phelps, Agatha Christie (original story) The spirit of the ending is retained with a few twists of convenience and accessibility that ends the exercise on a positive (albeit morose) note without getting wrapped up in the Hollywood ending of the 1945 film.Retro-review: Collected in a new THE BEST OF AGATHA CHRISTIE Vol.1 Collection from Acorn help me out and pick it up on DVD/BluRay here on Amazon! AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (2015)ĭirected by Craig Viveiros, Basi Akpabio, Rebecca Keane This TV version has not supplanted the 1945 movie in my affections, but it is very good 4.4 stars, rounded down to 4. The appropriately macabre take has its moments, but cannot be regarded as a complete success. I was thunderstruck, because I 'knew' the ending from a favorite movie of mine, the 1945 B&W movie with Walter Huston, ASIN:B00005QBZL And Then There Were None. The sex scenes were a bit random and had no real purpose. A few of the backstories are muddled after being precisely set up by Christie and quite necessary to remain fixed due to the ordering of the murders, not to directly spoil it. The series gives some superb instances of dark atmosphere and some intriguing additions that inject an air of humanity into the tale, but at the cost of a few puzzling choices. Maeve Dermody gets probably the largest amount of screen time, and does alright. The older, perhaps most-known stars of Sam Neill and Charles Dance give by-the-numbers performances with Dance adding a bit of extra flavour. The cast is wonderful, particularly Burn Gorman and Aidan Turner. As an ardent Christie fan, any modern interpretation of her work must instantly work hard to find itself upon even footing.
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