Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I watched the new adaptation. I've also seen the ITV's two versions, a not-good 1990s film and the weirdly contorted <I>Agatha Christie's Marple</i> version; and oddly enough the book was cheap on Kindle a few years ago, so I gave that a peruse when I saw this version was coming; I should, at this point, be able to teach a workshop in Christie Adaptations. The new one is very, very pretty. Rufus Sewell, as Mark Easterbrook, is very, very pretty. The flat, the village of Much Deeping, Mark's Lagonda 3-litre drophead coupé, all of it, very, very pretty. Deviations from the novel include doing away with Ariadne Oliver (*barely* present in the book, anyway!) and the Dane Calthorps and the peculiar appendix that is the Ginger/lawyer subplot; the ending isn't even remotely like the novel's, and is quite...murky. I will say that the scene where Easterbrook puts together the clues that lead to the solution was hair-raising, pitch-perfect Christie (even though it's absolutely nowhere in the book). The <I>Agatha Christie's Marple</i> version hewed more closely to the ending of the novel. It was actually very good, and the two-hour episode was darn good at creating the eerie atmosphere needed to sell the misdirection at the heart of the story. The 1990s movie was flat, uninspired. The whole thing reeked of budget woes. This version, however, does NOT reek of anything but brimstone. Burn, baby, BURN! A well-spent 110 minutes.