Agatha

The title of this English movie refers to one of the world's most famous writer, Agatha Christie, who, in 1926, left her home without warning and created a public speculation about her fate. The director, Michael Apted, gives us a great amount of solemnity, using it to balance with the most trivial of human behaviors. Dustin Hoffman is rather theatrical in his portrayal of a famous journalist that falls in love with the fragile and dependent writer and Vanessa Redgrave captures perfectly the loss and solitude of the character. And suddenly, when the movie itself was imbued in its quietness, becomes something close to a thriller, a race against time, and its cleverness never compensates the unexpected loss. But it is a beautiful film, carefully constructed and with some good dialogue. Victorio Storaro's cinematography is excellent as usual and Timothy Dalton probably gives his finest performance as a rigid and paternal husband who doesn't allow his wife to act as one. "Would you care for a kiss?", asks Agatha. I would say yes, but only to this Agatha .

Well photographed, carefully edited film, swimming in supposition. Almost quietly performed. Overall sense of loss and heartache gives further readings into Christie's books a tinged sense of sadness. Mannered but sympathetic acting by the 2 strong leads, balance well off the 2 sort of "villians": the snobby mistress and the caddish husband, played with icy detachment by the future and all too brief James Bond. The stunning visuals look especially nice on a large screen.

who could be discovered as embroidery of speculations. or as coherent explanation of an obscure moment of life . but its virtue is the meet between Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffmann. and the atmosphere. and, in same measure, the story who has the gift to be reflection of a period more than reflection of a life. this is the key of film - status of woman, need to escape from pressure, desire to become anonymous, the impossible love who could be a second chance and the drops of great literature from Emma Bovary to Anna Karenina. a beautiful film and impressive performances. and the flavor of a lost time. using the figure of Agatha Christie as pretext.

Fie on all adulterers!!!! Vanessa makes you feel her pain as she is rejected by her handsome cold husband and then subjected to his lies about his new mistress. We follow her thought processes, so good is her acting, as she mulls over suicide and the various ways it may be accomplished. Her masochistic love for this man is hard to believe, unless you've been caught up in the spell of a @#$$^$*%()_ , know what I mean? She certainly doesn't need him, financially.

Anyway, Dustin Hoffman comes along playing a hard-eyed, confident newspaper man, quite against type. He meets the wealthy owner of the paper he's stringing for eye to eye with great firmness. The way he brings another reporter into some high faluting meeting place over the snobbish insults of the wait-staff is a beautiful and subtle thing to watch.

I of course enjoyed all the English scenery at Bath, England at the old hotel there meant for folks in the old days to take different 'cures'. Of course, we're talking the idle rich here, and it was rather fascinating since we have our own Warm Springs, also used for similar type cures during the 30s and 40s.

Buy the movie for your big screen TV, and back it up with some Merchant Ivory for a great evening of hoighty-toighty England.

Michael Apted created a truly beautiful movie in this period piece. Watching it was an exercise in restraint, beauty, and remarkable taste, each frame seemingly more beautiful than the next. Again, Ms. Redgrave delivers a nuanced but powerful portrayal of this equally powerful mystery writer, who's real life disappearance was thoughtfully imagined in this thought-provoking film. Perhaps the choice of Dustin Hoffman was a bit of a stretch, when his physical height often seemed a little incongruous combined with the extreme height of the statuesque Redgrave, especially during the single love scene. That said, Hoffman's performance was more than up for the task, revealing a degree of stoic steadfastness and street smarts that makes the entire enterprise move along quite well, in spite of its generally slower pace, which English films generally employ to good effect. Never having heard of or seen this film before, catching it on TCM was an interesting and captivating delight.