SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

TheLittleSongbird Sleeping Murder is one of my favourite Agatha Christie books, I will warn you though I find it very creepy. As an adaptation, this version is surprisingly faithful, much more faithful than the Geraldine McEwan adaptation; that started off well but was ruined by some unnecessary plot changes. This 1987 adaptation looks wonderful, with some beautiful photography and lovely scenery and costumes without being too fancy. A number of scenes gave me nightmares when I first saw it, especially the ending. The book had real nervous edge and left some really haunting imagery inside your head, and the adaptation did very well in that aspect. The script is good, the pace isn't that slow, the music was haunting and beautiful and the acting was solid. Joan Hickson as usual is terrific in the title role, and Geraldine Alexander, like Sophia Myles in the recent version, was entirely captivating as Gwenda. Frederick Treves despite the shaky Scottish accent is quite effective as Kennedy, but John Moulder-Brown is rather wooden as Giles. All in all, a very effective adaptation of an excellent book. 9/10 Bethany Cox

pawebster The 1980s adaptations starring Joan Hickson are on the slow side by modern standards. This was in fact the last golden age of television before it was ruined by too many channels and the advent of the MTV attention span -- which has sadly affected us all, I fear. This version is lovingly crafted with delightful period details.Although, in its slowness, this version fails to build up the various suspects as sufficiently menacing, it is a good version which keeps quite faithful to the book. Geraldine Alexander is excellent as Gwenda and to my ears does a super New Zealand accent. John Moulder-Brown is a let-down as her unconvincing animatronic husband, beautifully dressed in the gent's outfitters styles of the period, but far too mannered in his perfect elocution. Joan Hickson does her stuff very well as usual.It is interesting (if depressing) to compare this with the travesty version starring Geraldine McEwan, where the plot has been mangled -- and garbled -- beyond recognition.

Lechuguilla Mysteries of the past should be left alone; otherwise, they may awaken danger. Using that well-known idiom, Dame Agatha pens another whodunit, wherein a young married woman's infatuation with an old, stately English house translates into buried secrets and impending murder.Having already read Christie's novel and concluded that this story was not quite as good as some of her other works, I watched the BBC adaptation of "Sleeping Murder", not expecting a lot. The film, like the book, gets off to a slow, tedious start. The plot gets better as it plods along. Toward the end, Director John Davies injects some needed suspense. The screenplay is a bit talky. Acting is adequate. I especially like Joan Hickson as Jane Marple who delightfully meddles in the business of a newlywed couple, and who naturally is a step, or several steps, ahead of everyone else in solving the crime.The story is not dependent on majestic scenery or unusual visual perspective, so that cinematography is fairly unimportant. But sets are important here, and so the filmmakers have given adequate attention to production design and costumes. Overall, they have done a good job with a Christie story that is relatively weak, and thus rendered a film that is reasonably entertaining.

tedg Spoilers herein.These Marple films are driving me crazy! The books are so clever, so experimental and adventurous. These film versions are so ignorant of how the books are put together it leaves me breathless. In this case, the idea is that the house (including the grounds) is itself a witness, a character. The competing realities in this mystery are all triggered by that space. There are films that use architecture as characters, and do it well. But not here. What a waste.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.