BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

YouHeart I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Iain-215 'Sleeping Murder' is one of the best of the BBC Hickson Marple adaptations in my opinion. It looks wonderful and has a top notch cast headed by the excellent Hickson herself as the elderly sleuth. The music is also particularly good and atmospheric - the bit where Gwenda comes across the 'poppies and cornflowers' wallpaper is fantastic with great crashing organ chords.This is much more faithful in style to the novel than the newer McEwen version. Geraldine Alexander is very appealing as Gwenda (though Sophia Myles is also superb for McEwen), the various suitors for Helen are well done and there's a brilliant cameo performance from Jean Anderson as the bossy Mrs Fane. Frederick Treves hams it up a bit as James Kennedy (his Scottish accent is pretty dreadful) and James Moulder-Brown is a bit wooden as Giles.Highly recommended and one of the best.

Lechuguilla Mysteries of the past should be left alone; otherwise, they may awaken danger. Using that well-known idiom, Dame Agatha pens another whodunit, wherein a young married woman's infatuation with an old, stately English house translates into buried secrets and impending murder.Having already read Christie's novel and concluded that this story was not quite as good as some of her other works, I watched the BBC adaptation of "Sleeping Murder", not expecting a lot. The film, like the book, gets off to a slow, tedious start. The plot gets better as it plods along. Toward the end, Director John Davies injects some needed suspense. The screenplay is a bit talky. Acting is adequate. I especially like Joan Hickson as Jane Marple who delightfully meddles in the business of a newlywed couple, and who naturally is a step, or several steps, ahead of everyone else in solving the crime.The story is not dependent on majestic scenery or unusual visual perspective, so that cinematography is fairly unimportant. But sets are important here, and so the filmmakers have given adequate attention to production design and costumes. Overall, they have done a good job with a Christie story that is relatively weak, and thus rendered a film that is reasonably entertaining.

Flippitygibbit 'Sleeping Murder' keeps rolling around on afternoon BBC television, and I have been drawn into the story twice so far. I don't like Miss Marple, so perhaps that is why I find this a decent story - I can't compare it to the books, and the world's oldest detective only crops up every now and again to explain the plot to the newlywed couple. I love the idea of Gwenda subconsciously buying a house from her past, and the details she uncovers, such as the pattern of the wallpaper in the cupboard and the steps in the garden. The history in the house, and the subsequent family tree research, had me hooked. The 'whodunnit' wasn't exactly taxing - just look for the most dubious character, battling with a bad case of pantomime villain - but the unravelling of the clues kept me interested (just about - at times this felt like an epic, instead of an installment of a detective series). The setting, period detail, and characters were all evocative of a storybook version of an era gone by. Perfect Sunday afternoon fodder.

tedg Spoilers herein.These Marple films are driving me crazy! The books are so clever, so experimental and adventurous. These film versions are so ignorant of how the books are put together it leaves me breathless. In this case, the idea is that the house (including the grounds) is itself a witness, a character. The competing realities in this mystery are all triggered by that space. There are films that use architecture as characters, and do it well. But not here. What a waste.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.