MARPLE: SLEEPING MURDER

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: violence, strong thematic elements

Rated:

Detectives are unique to the imagination of their creator. One of the world's most prolific novelists was Agatha Christie, known for her two eccentric and unique detectives. The first was Hercule Poirot, the Belgian sleuth offended if you thought he was French, and the second was Miss Jane Marple, an older woman with a penchant for knitting. Most book puritans loathe the new adaptations.

Thirteen years after the unfortunate death of her parents in India, Gwenda Halliday (Sophia Myles) has met a wealthy man, become engaged, and come to his native England in search of an estate. Her strong will immediately collides with that of her fiancée's solicitor and friend Hugh Hornbeam (Aidan McArdle). He has been commissioned with "keeping her happy and content," and agrees with her decision to search up the cost for a shore property. They come across a house that she immediately falls in love with, but Gwen is concerned with her immediate sense of the estate. Haunted by memories or visions of a murder that she believes transpired in the mansion years earlier, she becomes convinced that a woman named Helen was strangled there.

To ensure her state of mind, Hugh phones in to his friend Jane Marple (Geraldine McEwan) to keep them company and perhaps shed some light on what happened in the house years earlier. Gwen soon learns that she lived there as a child, shortly after her mother's death. Her father (Julian Wadham) was soon to be remarried to a beautiful actress (Anna-Louise Plowman) until her disappearance on the eve of her wedding. Helen was a member of the Funnybones, a traveling acting troupe made up of mismatched husband and wife Dickie and Janet Erskine (Paul McGann, Dawn French), and several other aspiring thespians. The search also introduces them to Gwen's uncle Dr. Kennedy (Phil Davis). 

The clues indicate Helen was not strangled, but Gwen remains convinced of what she saw, and it remains to Miss Marple to make sense of the entanglement of lies, deceptions, and sinister nature of the Funnybone Acting Troupe. Having not read the book, it is difficult for me to make judgments on this adaptation. Certainly, in the last couple of years fans have been outraged by the changes made to Agatha Christie's novels in bringing this new series of films to the big screen. Among other things, homosexual characters have been added where there were none, in an oversight by the inability for Christie's family to keep watch over her books' integrity. It is that which makes me guess that the conclusion either differs from the book, or significant details have been left out. There is not an enormous amount of content, but some of it remains disturbing.

Incestuous undertones come into play at one point, and an adulterous affair is uncovered. It is said Helen and Mr. Halliday often spent the night together (much to the scandal of the housekeeper). Violence consists of numerous flashbacks of a woman being strangled, her body lying in the lower hall, and a couple of fistfights. The cast is quite strong and in my opinion, McEwan makes a very likable Miss Marple. The mischievous gleam in her eye compares only to the mysterious aura that surrounds her seemingly cryptic remarks. She might look like your grandmother, but I'll wager she's a good deal more criminal-minded.