Murderland

Ordinarily I love Robbie Coltrane. He looked (and was) way too old and used up for this part. I think they chose a big name like his because the writing was so bad, and an actor of his caliber might make it watchable. But it didn't happen. Before the 3-parter was half over it was already obvious who the killer was. The red herrings were sickly pink and rotting by that time. I can see where maybe the book was okay. The basic idea was okay. But the execution of script, filming, timing, flashbacking was absolutely terrible. The whole middle episode could have been deleted and not lost a beat. They basically just retold the first episode in the second one, same scenes rehashed. Then the third episode crash-landed (you'll see what I mean) into a 5-second revelation of what happened. Following that, nonsensical stupidity and gratuitous death. But it was a relief to get it all over with and go to bed. Not even anything that might keep me from getting a good night's sleep.

I wrote a detailed explanation of what was wrong- complete spoilers and it's not showing. I won't take the time to rewrite- so no spoilers. the idea of the 3 views, of the same incidents, and as they unfold, more is revealed each time, is a sound one. (Rashoman) Robbie, and the younger & older Carrie/Carol, the murdered mother, are very good. But there is a tipping point, when it goes from credible to implausible. Seems it was shown in 3 episodes, new on Amazon, it's one movie. Everything is revealed in the last 20 minutes, with absurd plot points. Introducing things that were completely hidden in the beginning. Carol (the Character) acting in an unbelievable manner, comes across a perpetrator/witness who tells all. and as the thread is pulled, it all unravels. the end, what happened. Is it worth the journey, depends on your viewpoint on entertainment.

Robbie Coltrane has never made a poor murder mystery. This one is guilty of overplaying the flashback tool, going to the present with the daughter of the murdered party-girl mom, and then returning to the past too frequently. Nonetheless, the film is a gripping whodunit with plenty of twists n turns. Grim, at times.

Overall, I would rate it 8/10. Final note-the version on Amazon Prime apparently combined a few episodes of a series into a movie (might explain some of editing problems)... but, on the bright side, we detected none of the profanity listed in the PG-content. There was one brief scene of sensuality to fast forward.

Running out of things to watch I decided to give this a try last night. I really liked the young Carol ( kept me watching) the older version was good but as a child dhe had such a big personality and the adult one didn't though she reminded me of Suranne Jones whom I love. I noticed a few of the actors from other UK series too. I found it a decent watch. Kept me interested throughout and there's not a lot of episodes to invest in. I give it a thumbs up.

The storyline was good but the character of young Carrie was supposed to be 14 she acted like a spoiled toddler. The squealing, the irrational behavior complete entitled brat. That made this extremely hard to get through this mini series. It was like she was going for an award for the most over acted part in history. The older Carrie is a wonderful actress I adore her and everything she's been in. This would have actually been a decent mini series had it not been for the distraction of the over the top 14 year old. I've never in real life seen a 14 year old act that way. It's like the director had no idea how a 14 year old girl should behave regardless of the circumstances behind the story. I gave the rating a 2 for the other wonderful actors involved I would haven't given 0 if I could.