I was not expecting to be confronted by an extreme horror film, and the mild certification given it back in 1979 beggar's belief. Directed in a painting by numbers style by Apted it has the sole merit of having Vanessa Redgrave in a part worthy of her, but made unworthy by the script. Horror which was so prevalent from the 1970's onwards also had to intrude upon this make believe story of Agatha Christie's disappearance in the December of 1926. The arts department goes into overdrive with the Charleston, Cloche hats and a shot of horses mingling with cars and to a certain extent this works in a pedestrian sort of way. Timothy Dalton is wasted in the part of her faithless husband, and for so-called romance Dustin Hoffman plays the part of an American who tries to solve the reason why she had disappeared. I found his acting adequate and Redgrave is given second place on the posters and in the star billing. A shame on anyone who decided on that as Redgrave is arguably the finest actor British cinema and theatre has ever known, and in my opinion she should have been given first place. As for the fictional ' reality ' of the plot the first half seemed plausible until Hoffman comes on to the scene and takes over. Slowly a plot develops which I will not give away, far worse in violence than anything Agatha Christie wrote, perhaps with the exception of ' And then there were None ' occasionally made into equally shoddy films and television adaptations, unfolds itself. I will just mention that for those like me who despise depictions of Capital Punishment in all its forms should avoid this film. I cannot give any excuses for the making of this rarely seen film and have given it 3 stars for Redgrave who deserved much better material.
Review of Agatha
