Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar

After tuning in to watch what I thought would be your usual Agatha Christie take, I was pleasantly surprised by something different that definitely stands out from the crowd. Brilliantly directed by Sam Yates, the shots looked well thought out and added to the classier finish of production you don't tend to find on your evening foray threw the channels. Part romance, part murder mystery, this film was absolutely worth my time and I thoroughly recommend it; by and large for the stellar performances by the cast, especially the leads in Lyndsey Marshal and Jonah Hauer King who harboured a wonderful chemistry throughout.

This was slow and plodding. It managed to make 95 minutes feel like 3 hours. The main actress playing Agatha lacked charisma and it had a bit of an amateur feel to it, although it was made as a TV movie. On the plus side, the production values were very good, so it was a shame that it wasn't a better script with a bit more drama and played less flat. This is probably the dullest Agatha Christie related movie that I have ever seen. At least the ones made in the 80s were entertaining.

Jonah H-K... how does he get parts? Here he is, playing an extremely similar role to the one he had in World on Fire, i.e. a wet young upper-class Englishman in the 1920s-1940s. In neither role does he have a feeling for the period or an appropriate accent. Even if he were better, the script would still be anachronistic anyway. And Agatha herself is boring. It's also very slow. After a while I gave up and switched off.

Channel 5 make another original Agatha Christie mystery movie featuring Agatha Christie turned crime investigator. This way they do not have to deal with any copyright issues relating to Marple or Poirot. Agatha Christie (Lyndsey Marshal) has divorced her husband and gone to an Iraqi archaeological site to seek inspiration to write romance stories. Instead she finds love with a younger man. Max Mallowan (Jonah Hauer-King) an archaeological assistant is found by Christie after he is shot. The real life Mallowan actually ended up marrying Christie. Christie also stumbles into murder then a monkey who has been poisoned and later found hanged. Of course this could easily be a Poirot mystery. The desert, Babylonian artefacts being looted, a tablet containing a curse, an arrogant American tycoon and oodles of death, but that character is under copyright. So Christie and Mallowan try to unearth the killer and also find time for some hanky panky. At times it comes across as Carry on Follow that Camel with a randy couple on the excavation site and some double entendres. This looks more expensive than last year's Agatha and the Truth of Murder. It has been filmed in Malta. It was also more playful and lighter in tone in than the previous movie. I am not convinced that it actually made it a better film. I think Marshal fitted the part better than the previous actress.

I expected some value out of an Agatha Christie movie but it was pure garbage. First the lead actress is dull , actually all the cast is made of boring people with no charisma. The plot initially promised a lot but it was just unrealistic and poor designed. The so called romance was a joke.

I didn't have great expectations so it was a very pleasant surprise to watch this story unfold and be so unexpectedly charming. I found it delightful. Lyndsey Marshall is eminently watchable and Jonah Haur-King is beautiful. There may not have been many other performances that matched but Sir Constance was good I thought. The dialogue was sparing and often the lack of it was the source of enjoyment and though not a serious work I thought the attitudes towards the digs and artefacts was true to the times and how arrogant that could be, though some valued them as they ought to be valued. As far as I can tell that is. Of course my own views colour that and how we may view such things now. In summation. My expectations were exceeded and I enjoyed the story immensely.

This, the second story to imagine authoress Agatha Christie to be caught up in a murder mystery of her own, sees her travelling to Iraq to stay with friends at an archaeological dig. Before she gets there young archaeologist, Max, finds a body. This is put down to a snake bite but it soon becomes apparent that something is afoot. When Agatha arrives she finds Max injured by a bullet wound in the head and not long afterwards when she gets to the house where those involved in the dig are staying a pet monkey is found hanged! She thinks this is more than mere animal cruelty so, with the help of Max, performs an autopsy. The results make her certain that the dead man was killed something other than a snake. In the investigation that follows she grows close to Max while exposing a plot to steal artefacts and ultimately identifying the killer. If you can get beyond the conceit of placing a real crime writer in a fictional murder mystery this rather fun. This fictionalised Agatha is a good protagonist and the mystery provides plenty of suspects. As well as the central mystery there is a degree of romance which doesn't distract from the main story. The thing that surprised me most about this production was the degree of humour; there were laughs from start to finish. These were unforced rather than obvious gags and added to my enjoyment. The cast is solid, most notably Lyndsey Marshal who is charming as Agatha and Jonah Hauer King, who plays Max. Obviously it couldn't be filmed in Iraq but the Maltese locations used have a suitably Middle Eastern look. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of classic murder mysteries.

It has all the trappings of a pretty period drama, and it probably wasn't cheap to make, but the plot and the dialogue are absolute drivel. Jonah Hauer-King is a tasty piece of eye-candy but ogling him is the only pleasure to be had from wasting your time with this.