Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Nozz It was a mistake to advertise this version as a return to Agatha Christie's original short story. The script does jettison at least one memorable addition that was not in the original, but it also adds a great deal of extra material. Some of the material harmonizes very well with the story, and it has to do with a look, from here in the future, back at things that, during the period in which Christie was writing, were taken for granted. The indelible trauma of the First World War, the yawning gap between the haves and have-nots. The actors help sell the point that these are not just reminders of history but also reminders of human nature. The fleshing-out draws the viewer into the story more deeply than many playful or even mechanical Christie-inspired movies have done, but ultimately it wanders into territory that Christie herself, I suspect, wouldn't have entered and perhaps wouldn't even have endorsed.

s_imdb-623 In many parts it is 9/10, but in others 2/10.I haven't read the book and, though I'm sure I have, I don't remember seeing other versions. Firstly and primarily this very very slow and plodding. The story is there, watchable and interesting but the scenes are so overly stretched out that they've gone beyond art and into boredom. So, if you like slow moving stories steeped with brilliantly astute and deep vignettes on life, garnished with an excellent but dark period drama, you will love this.The acting is generally very good as is the period feel. The cold reality of life, especially due to the war, imparts the darkness. The twists and turns of the plot are very good, except the final twist of the crime story, which leaves you feeling the whole rest of the story was just 'camera tricks' (as in magic shows) to mislead us. It felt like a big con. The whodunnit part is maintained well throughout.The poignant imprints of war on life are genius, especially the generational statement at the end, but the time spent on them turns parts of this more into an Alan Bennett play than a crime thriller.

TheLittleSongbird Can definitely see the polarising opinions, the virtues being brought up are understandable and every bit as understandable are the complaints.Of the adaptations of 'Witness for the Prosecution' it is this 2016 adaptation that fares the weakest, despite being closer to the short story than the play it is not a patch on the brilliant 1957 Billy Wilder film. Also preferred the 1982 version. It is not awful, and there are worse Agatha Christie adaptations around, a most notable recent example being 'Partners in Crime' with a woefully miscast David Walliams. But after being so impressed by 2015's 'And Then There Were None', I was honestly expecting much more.There are strong things here. Apart from going overboard on the grimness sometimes, particularly in the first half, 'Witness for the Prosecution' is very pleasing to look at, being beautifully shot and with costume and set design that are both handsome and evocative. The music is unobtrusive but still has a presence.Parts of the storytelling are very compelling, the whodunit and legal stuff is mostly quite riveting, while the conflict of WWI is powerfully evoked and the relationship between Mayhew and his wife having moments of tender pathos. There are some great twists, especially the very clever (though the one of the 1957 film had more edge) final reveal.'Witness for the Prosecution' benefits from a great cast as well. A brilliant performance from Toby Jones is particularly note-worthy, and more than up to his level are Andrea Riseborough, who captivates in bringing an enigmatic quality to a character that you are not sure whether to trust or not. Billy Howle's performance is enough to make one convinced of his innocence. David Haig and Tim McMullan excel as morally devious barristers, as does a venomous Monica Dolan and a touchingly subtle Hayley Carmichael. Kim Catrall is luxury casting, and is a dream.It is a real shame however that 'Witness for the Prosecution' is let down significantly by pacing issues, especially for a lot of the first half, which takes too long to set up with scenes that feel over-stretched and go on longer than needed, and the seemingly endless and melodramatic stuff after the final reveal, like there was an indecisiveness as to how to end it. The second half is more gripping and better paced, but again the pace does drag and scenes and subplots feel like padded filler.Really it would have been better to do 'Witness for the Prosecution' as a one off lasting an hour or something, because the story just doesn't feel long enough to sustain two hour long episodes. So it felt like there was too much padding and stretching in an attempt to sustain it. There is stuff included to give the story a darker tone, but it did feel too often too gratuitously grim and anachronistic, and over-darkened and overshadowed a story that didn't need it.A few scenes between Mayhew and his wife, despite some tender pathos in others and great chemistry between Jones and Carmichael, felt soapy and overwritten, and personally am another person who found the sex scene unnecessary and in poor taste.Concluding this review, not an awful adaptation and production, not as bad as said by some, but could have been much better and comes off as uneven. 6/10 Bethany Cox

tr91 I haven't read the original from Agatha Christie, nor have I seen any other adaptations there might have been before this so I had no idea how the story was going to play out. Following the success last year of And Then There Were None, I was very much looking forward to this years BBC adaptation. I find that when shows like this are shown over consecutive nights rather than weeks, it's much easier to follow. It's easier to get more involved in the world on screen whereas sometimes when a show is weekly you may forget key parts (especially, if like me you watch a large variety of different things). I had read a few reviews and comments from various sources of social media and there seems to be a lot of complaints about the sex scene and also the green mist, with people claiming they struggled to see what was going on. I personally found the picture to be perfect and the green mist gave the show a real gloomy atmosphere. The story was intriguing with plenty of twists and turns over the two episodes. The acting from all the cast was very strong also, Andrea Riseborough in particular was impressive yet again. The 1st episode was excellent and really set up the 2nd episode nicely. It kept me guessing all the way through. There was a slight lull in the 2nd episode but towards the end when the main reveal happened I was left satisfied with how it all turned out. Overall a strong mini series that is well worth catching up on if you missed it. Highly recommend and I'm hoping that there is more of this type of drama to come in the near future.