Five Little Pigs

Finally! I've now seen all of the feature length installments of the Poirot movies featuring David Suchet. And wouldn't you know it - the last one I watch just happens to be one of the best of the entire series.

Five Little Pigs, which happens to benefit from staying fairly true to Agatha Christie's original work (at least as best as I can remember), is a poignant, gut-wrenching, and beautifully filmed movie. As Christie did in her novel, the mystery is told though a series of five interviews that flashback to that fateful day when a murder was committed. Director Paul Unwin handles this portion quite nicely. I was worried about all the hand-held shaky-cam, but it works well for the iffy memories of events of fourteen years previous. Even though I knew the outcome, I thought the mystery elements were well done. I think someone without knowledge of the plot would really enjoy this part of Five Little Pigs. The acting, other than the abysmal performance of Aimee Mullins as the adult Lucy, is more than acceptable. By now (or by 2003 at least), Suchet has grown in the role of Poirot to the point that I cannot imagine anyone else even attempting to do the character. Two other real highlights for me were the music (it's quite beautiful) and the photography (there are some gorgeous landscape shots throughout the movie). All together, an 8/10 seems about right by me. Had the adult Lucy not been so distractingly poorly played, I could have easily rated Five Little Pigs higher.

This is one of my personal top favorites of Christie's books, and I've always wondered why it hadn't been adapted for television; although considering how badly many of them have fared in the past, you figure maybe its just as well! Amazingly, this production has stuck remarkably close to the book - tight budgets and weather permitting - although it starts to derail badly a couple of times at the very end. Christie's books are sometimes quite dark and very adult, something which has usually been scrubbed out of the various movie and television versions, as they are dumbed down, cheered up, and "sanitized for your protection". However in this adaptation, the producers have instead chosen to "dive deep", and have come up with something surprisingly moving, which starts to edge towards Greek tragedy. In many ways, it stands head and shoulders above prior Poirots.

The casting has netted a very interesting group of actors, although as much as I admire Aidan Gillen's work he is the last person that I would have thought of for Amyas Crale - I would have looked for someone more like Denis Quilley. Suchet's work here is just about seamless, as he wisely takes a "less-is-more" approach to this serious outing. Its amusing to see Annette Badland in a minor role; she appeared memorably in a "Miss Marple" many years prior, as an unfortunate victim tied to a clothesline.

Five Little Pigs is one of my favourite novels of all time, when you love a book so much it's so often the case that any adaptation lets it down somewhat. Not the case with Five Little Pigs, this adaptation is glorious. Very few changes were made from the text, so plaudits to the team involved for creating such a sincere, quality version. I was a little underwhelmed by recent productions like Dumb Witness and Hickory Dickory Dock, Five Little Pigs is all together a more sophisticated and sumptuous production. The first thing you're aware of us is how lucky the team were with the weather, it was filmed on days of glorious sunshine, that adds to the feel of the story, it looks sensational.

The production values are superb, it looks amazing, I loved the music too, indeed the overall flavour of the episode is outstanding. The performances are truly great, Rachel Stirling, Gemma Jones, Aimee Mullins are all brilliant. Aidan Gillen is terrific as the handsome but aloof Amyas Crale, perfect casting indeed.

It's so well paced, the contrasts of colours and textures really help with the flow of the story, you get the brightness of the past, and the harshness of present day, after the tragic deaths have occurred.

Story telling at its very best, 10/10

The Poirot series has always appealed to me because I love that era, but also because it's intriguing and interesting. This is no exception - actually, this is one of my favorites, if not THE favorite.

A young woman asks to meet Poirot and she explains that she believes her Mother was wrongly hanged for killing her Father. There are a number of flashbacks, beautifully arranged in accurate places. Every suspect is interviewed and gives their account on the story. One little pig is lying.

Not only did the incredibly sad story make an impact on me, but the hauntingly beautiful score which set just the right mood (mysterious, sad, haunting) for the movie. It is the cherry on top of a very beautiful, yummy cake.

Poirot: Five Little Pigs is one of the best movies I've seen. It just feels right. You just relax and enjoy the story - you don't have to cringe at bad actors. A truly beautiful, hauntingly sad movie.

This film is incredibly good. The cast is uniformly good. The direction is clever and thoughtful. The music is beautiful. The script has all the essentials of the plot and remarkably faithful to the book. I would be quite willing to say it's the best Christie adaptation so far. It's so good in fact that it could have been made for the silver screen. I even forgive the fact that it isn't set on a rocky battlement as it is in the book - the documentary on the DVD explains why - budgetary constraints - and the water garden does just as well. All the heart-breaking tragedy from the book - and it is a tragedy, even for the culprit - is there. It bodes well for the next lot of Poirot films, and so too for the upcoming Miss Marples. I thank the producers for having the courage, which has paid off handsomely. Well done.