AGATHA CHRISTIE'S POIROT:

FIVE LITTLE PIGS

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: implied adultery, mature thematic elements

Rated:

Fourteen years after a murder and resulting hanging, a young woman comes to Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) asking to reopen the case. A beautiful girl raised in America after the death of her father and its subsequent proceedings, Lucy Crale (Aimee Mullins) wants to know the truth about her parents. Her father Amyas (Aidan Gillen) was a talented artist well-known for his impressionistic works in socialite circles. He was also a notorious womanizer, much to the distress of his beautiful young wife Caroline (Rachael Stirling). Situated in a lovely countryside home where his talent was allowed to flourish, Amyas had just been commissioned to paint a portrait of Elsa Greer (Julie Cox), a twenty year old aristocratic flapper. They met at an art gala and did not immediately strike it off, but through Elsa's persistence Amyas agreed and invited her to his home.

While working feverishly on the painting, his home life began to fall apart. The day after Elsa intimidated that she would soon be mistress of the house, Amyas was found poisoned in the back garden. Supporting evidence led to Caroline's trial and execution, but Poirot is not so certain of all the facts. Returning to the scene of the crime, he proceeds to interrogate everyone involved. There was Amyas' best boyhood friend Philip Blake (Toby Stephens), who always held a vendetta against Caroline for coming between them. Caroline's younger sister Angela was also in the house. A beautiful girl aside from her sightless right eye, the result of a childhood act of violence between siblings, she was a constant irritation to Amyas, who wanted to send her off to boarding school. Then there was the overly protective governess, Miss Williams (Gemma Jones). Not to mention their next door neighbor Meredeth Blake (Marc Warren), who has more poison in his garden shed than six apothecaries put together.

On the weekend in question everyone had access to the garden shed. No one seems to have had a motive except Caroline. The evidence given supports that she was indeed responsible for framing her husband's death as a suicide. But where there's smoke, there's a fire and Poirot is about to get to the bottom of it. He unearths a shocking tale of corruption, purposeful betrayal and scandal in the finest tradition of Agatha Christie suspense. It could be argued that all of her books are very much alike. The victim is almost always a womanizing husband and his wife is the prime suspect, but Five Little Pigs is more complex than that. There aren't many red herrings and the audience is just as perplexed as Poirot as we attempt to piece together the clues. This film deserves more than one viewing in order to understand the entire sequence of events. It's filmed in a much more obscure style than most of its surrounding films. The cameras all shake in an attempt to recreate the realism of seeing through characters' eyes, instead annoying the viewer. Everything is very picturesque and flashbacks are shown in a beautiful golden hue.

There are some mild content issues and concerns but for the most part they're only implied. Elsa states right from the beginning that she set out to seduce Amyas. Their first meeting includes mild banter about whether or not they'll wind up sleeping together if he paints her portrait. After resisting for a time Amyas "spends two wonderful weeks" with her in London. They're shown curled up in bed together. It's understood that he's had many women in the past, and adulterous affairs are commonplace in his line of work. He and Caroline quarrel over this on numerous occasions. The screenplay politely alludes to the fact that one character is a homosexual. He rejects the advances of Caroline when she comes to his room seeking comfort, and she accuses him of loving Amyas. Everyone winds up in a screaming match at least once. Two women scrap with one another after discovering the painter dead and are forcefully torn apart. A woman is hanged in prison. A little girl throws a heavy object at her uncle. Mild language also intervenes.

There are some remarkable performances present. Rachael Stirling has the most compelling role as the accused wife who may have had reasons for taking the wrap. Julie Cox, best known for her innocent role as fawn-eyed Miss Darcy in Pride & Prejudice, turns on the vamp vixen role to the extreme in petty, loathsome Elsa, who deliberately set out to ruin a marriage. Aidan Gillen is under-used to a large degree but manages to be contemptible in his usual excellent form, a fabulous throwback to Lorna Doone or Shanghai Knights. David Suchet is excellent as Poirot. Over the course of twenty years he's refined the role so that no one else could ever fill his shoes. From his penguin-like movements to the curled mustache, his little grey cells are often underestimated by villains, leading to their eventual demise. Hercule Poirot lives on.

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