Rillington Place
Rillington Place
| 29 November 2016 (USA)

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SEASON & EPISODES
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  • Reviews
    TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
    Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
    Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
    Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
    jonathan-747-46162 Tim Roth plays the notorious serial killer John "Reg" Christie with bone-chilling eeriness, a masterly performance to no small extent aided by the cinematography and lighting, which would have had Hitchcock nodding in approval, and which borders as closely on the exagerrated as it gets without overstepping the line (in my opinion). The set design provides the appropriately grim backdrop of the poorer areas of 1940s and 1950s London, and the soundtrack is certainly enough to make anybody lie awake wondering what might be lurking under the floorboards of the house you just moved into. The story is very well told, leaving enough for the viewer's imagination to add to the horror as the ghastly details creep into your mind. But there is a piece missing at the very end, as if the director suddenly realised that the allotted running time was quickly running out, and had to cut out a large chunk without forethought. That, unfortunately, takes away a few stars from what would otherwise have been a little masterpiece, but which is now left marred by an ending that seems oddly thrown together with too many loose ends dangling. Nevertheless, it's well worth a watch - you'll never look at your balding uncle the same way again.
    paul2001sw-1 True serial killers are mercifully rare. But Reginald Christie strangled six women for no good motive, and an innocent man, Timonthy Evans, was sentenced to death for one of those before Christie's guilt became unarguable. In 'Rillington Place', Tim Roth is excellent as the mass murderer, a sad little man for whom you might feel sorry if not for his method of relieving his frustrations. There's absolutely no hint of Hannibal Lecter about this man; yet he was horrifyingly effective in what he did. Overall, however, the drama is mostly painful, and while this is probably inevitable, what is lacking is a sense of ordinary life going on around the sad world of the Christie family. Instead, we see a world only of smog, austerity, and a mood of unremitting gloom - if London was really as dreary as this, it's a wonder there weren't thousands of Christies, not just one.
    Prismark10 Rillington Place is a three part drama based on the events of the 1940s and 50s when John Christie (Tim Roth) is said to have murdered at least eight women in his dinghy and dank Notting Hill flat. One of the victims was his wife.The first episode was from the point of view of Ethel Christie (Samantha Morton.) The Christie's have had a turbulent marriage where they have separated in the past and they have moved to London from Yorkshire. There is distrust as she suspects her husband cavorting with prostitutes in seedy pubs.The second episode focuses on dim Tim Evans, the young man in over his head as his wife dies during a botched abortion and daughter later disappears and he is framed for their deaths.The final episode really goes in for the kill, the lies John Christie tells at Evan's trial and then we see him get rid of his wife and others before the authorities figure out that they might have executed the wrong man.The series really is dark and depressing as the grim post war years. The tale is told in a jumbled up narrative. Roth speaks in a quiet voice, he admits to almost emulating writer Alan Bennett in his tone of voice. However this is a chilling, devious man, involved in criminal activities throughout his life ranging from stealing to assaulting a woman with a bat.Roth had a hard act to follow, Richard Attenborough played John Christie in the film 10 Rillington Place. Here Roth is hemmed in by the script because it builds up slowly to Christie's murderous spree and because it wants to approach the drama through different perspectives.While I admire the period setting, all dimly lit and rather squalid. I also found the series insipid when it should had been horrifying.
    Khun Kru Mark One aspect of making a drama based on actual events is that we mostly know what's going to happen. This has the disadvantage of removing some of the apprehension needed to make good dramas work but it has the benefit of letting the viewer focus on other things.And in this case, there are plenty of 'other things' to absorb. The exquisite attention to detail on the sets, the (sometimes odd) writing, the inconsistent accents of some cast members and the masterful performances of Tim Roth and Samantha Morton.For some viewers (like me) it's worth re-familiarizing yourself with a little backstory about these characters and the events that happened, as they give some reason and motivation behind some of the strange decisions that are made.There is probably too little material for a three-hour miniseries to satisfy a young audience and the violence of the events that unfold are implied rather than displayed... which leaves the drama somewhat lacking in suspense... especially in a story where such inventive ways were used to dispatch the victims.In the end, this BBC drama is drab, uneventful and too long. What makes it even more difficult to digest are the choppy and confusing (and entirely unnecessary) flashbacks and flashforwards.