SB100

Even allowing for the limitations imposed by a TV budget and noticeable in some fairly dodgy locations - an 'airport' appears to be really a disused factory, this is a poor film.

First, Sebastian Koch, a good actor, is miscast as Stauffenberg (even though he has played other German officers to better effect, eg in 'The Black Book'). He lacks intensity and is not believable as someone who would make the daring leap involved here.

More seriously, the script is a mess. Characters appear without explanation; there is no attempt to show the process of gathering support and planning the operation; things just happen. The place of the Valkyrie plan and reserve army in the conspiracy is never properly explained, nor is it clear how Stauffenberg makes the transition from injured but ordinary Wehrmacht officer to someone with access to Hitler and the High Command.

I am not a great fan of Tom Cruise, but his film of the same subject is much better on every count.

Rupert Graves is not an actor I care for much, but he is good in this film as William Shakespeare, having to eternally make money and using that as an excuse to escape domestic life. This is all shown through a story about what might have been the motivation behind the writing of the Sonnets, which are one of the finest achievements in English poetry. The story is credible, although of course there are many theories about the issue. The period settings were very believable, and in contrast to a number of films about the era (eg All is True) the dialogue was easily audible and understandable. Amongst other performances, Tom Sturridge makes a devious pretty boy, and Indira Varma is very good as the mixed race prostitute Lucie, making her way in a world which will use her even as she uses the men. Camilla Arfwedson manages to make an impression in a single thirty second scene, and Zoe Wanamaker also has an effective cameo.

This is the product of people who don't have confidence in their source material, a 1943 Christie novel. The basic plot is preserved but it is glossed-up in a number of ways. It is filmed in startlingly bright colours, in an over-pretty village. Homosexuality is referred to openly rather than in the way it would have been then and an additional death is inserted and linked to it. The hero, Jerry, is no longer just an injured pilot but a pilot who cannot adjust to peace, womanises and drinks, and attempts suicide. The governess is no long beautiful but boring but instead is amazingly glamorous and sexy and of course tries it on with the hero.

Ken Russell hams it up as the vicar. Miss Marple is ever-present rather than arriving in the last third of the book, reducing the important role Jerry and the police play in the novel. And so on. There are a few good performances - Frances de la Tour as the vicar's wife, and Tallulah Riley as the despised stepdaughter Megan. On the whole, however, this is far inferior to the 1980s Joan Hickson version.