Directed by:
Gilles Paquet-BrennerScreenplay:
Julian FellowesCinematography:
Sebastian WinterøComposer:
Hugo de ChaireCast:
Max Irons, Glenn Close, Gillian Anderson, Christina Hendricks, Honor Kneafsey, Terence Stamp, Julian Sands, Stefanie Martini, Roger Ashton-Griffiths (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
The suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of a wealthy patriarch is investigated by spy-turned-private-detective Charles Hayward, who is lured by his former lover to catch her grandfather’s murderer before Scotland Yard exposes dark family secrets. On the sprawling estate, amidst a poisonous atmosphere of bitterness, resentment and jealousy in a truly crooked house, Hayward encounters three generations of the dynasty, including a theater actress, the old man's widow 50 years his junior, and the family matriarch Lady Edith de Haviland. (Vertical Entertainment)
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Reviews (7)
For those little bastards, a shotgun won't be enough. Moles, snakes, and all sorts of other pests overrun the estate, where, according to Agatha Christie’s conventions, everyone has a motive to kill, including the detective. In the first round of interrogations, the characters don’t make much of an impression, and in the second round, things don’t progress, so aside from the rock 'n' roll setting, the most interesting parts are probably the “group” scenes (the harmonious joint dinner, the reading of the will). The finale was supposed to be intense, but who will take care of those moles now? Jeremy’s popularity doesn’t smooth over my view of Max Irons's performance.
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This film has quite a large cast of interesting actors, which led to one of the least interesting Agatha Christie adaptations ever made. It's a bit sad, but even though the film tries to achieve some atmosphere here and there, it just doesn't work and it's not worth it. The plot may have been good in the book, but it wasn't developed well here.
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Agatha Christie considered Crooked House (1949) to be her favorite novel. Perhaps because she defended the ending against the publishers' assumptions. In any case, the material is also interesting for the audience because the filmmakers don't use it much. Here we have the opportunity to encounter a relatively new and interesting substance; moreover, the cast is dominated by Glenn Close and Gillian Anderson outside their usual mannerisms. And while I prefer the pre-war Christie in many ways, I certainly don't consider this a loss. Yet if only the filmmakers could have stuck more to the aesthetics of the 40s, given that the 50s are in fact somewhat different.
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I was really looking forward to this film but was somewhat disappointed with the result. It wasn't bad, I just expect more of a film adaptation of a book by Agatha Christie. The story seemed rather mediocre. Only the ending stood out - it was excellent. Concerning the acting performances, a special mention goes to Christina Hendricks and Glenn Close who entertained me the most.
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Taking into account the final and very shocking reveal and the plethora of exceedingly wacky, twisted and certainly very well portrayed characters in the plot, it is no wonder that Crooked House was the favourite book of the author herself, Agatha Christie. I'll definitely have to find the time to read that book. As far as the film adaptation is concerned, it has more than one big name actor – I’d like to highlight the performances of Glenn Close and Terence Stamp. On the other hand, I didn't find Max Irons' performance in the lead role to be very good. Compared to the TV movies with Poirot and Miss Marple, Crooked House is noticeably longer, so some sequences felt too stretched out. It's really a shame that it's a pretty boring affair in the end (except for the reveal), because the potential was definitely there.
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