A perfectly good version of "Sleeping Murder" was done during the Hickson/Marple days. Now they have a new, viewer-friendly Marple in Geraldine McEwan, and have her in a lot of cases that don't belong to her (i.e., "The Sittaford Mystery," "By the Pricking of My Thumbs," etc.) So when they come to "Sleeping Murder" -- a very real and very creepy Marple story that already has a perfectly fine version done in the 1980s -- what do they do? Why, they write what amounts to a whole a new story.
Spoiler: Now, they do get around to having basically the same premise and the same murderer. So if you've read the book or seen the Hickson version there are no surprises there.
The original storyline is slight for a full-scale movie unless, as in the Hickson days, they have slow, almost David Lynchian camera movements. So they set the story around a troupe of traveling performers (headed by Paul McGann) who don't appear in the book, which is one of Dame Agatha's creepier stories.
The plot in a trifle convoluted: involving, for instance, a man who, for all sorts of reasons, has to marry his own wife. And the ins and outs of all the performers are difficult to follow (it's definitely one you'll want to see again, just to see if you can work out the relationships). And they pasted in an extremely unlikely romance that was a mistake from the word go, but eliminated the need for Marple's nephew.
They did go for class. In a short play scene the actress is a blink-and-you'll miss her Harriet Walter!
It's not a bad retelling of Christie's story, but it's hard to follow. The confusion caused from watching this version may send you scurrying to the book. HOWEVER, if you see this version before reading the book, you must realize that, though the basic tale of "Gwenda" isn't so different (except that she comes from India as an adult and not from New Zealand, and she's only engaged and not married), all the rigmarole of the traveling performers will not be there. It works fine on film, but even if Agatha Christie had wanted her book done this way, it would take a P. G. Wodehouse to pull off the writing.
A word about Geraldine McEwan's performance . As as American, when I first saw the Hickson Marples I did not realize that in England Hickson was as well known for comic turns as for serious roles. Seeing her performances in that new light helped me understand a lot of what she was doing as an actress. Also, Hickson comes off as much more the Marple I see in Christie's books. Nosy, a bit crotchety, sphinx-like. Geraldine McEwan seems too cheerful and friendly; and she often has an "I know something you don't know" smirk. As I said, she's more viewer friendly, but a departure from Marple as I always envisioned the old bag.
Spoiler: Now, they do get around to having basically the same premise and the same murderer. So if you've read the book or seen the Hickson version there are no surprises there.
The original storyline is slight for a full-scale movie unless, as in the Hickson days, they have slow, almost David Lynchian camera movements. So they set the story around a troupe of traveling performers (headed by Paul McGann) who don't appear in the book, which is one of Dame Agatha's creepier stories.
The plot in a trifle convoluted: involving, for instance, a man who, for all sorts of reasons, has to marry his own wife. And the ins and outs of all the performers are difficult to follow (it's definitely one you'll want to see again, just to see if you can work out the relationships). And they pasted in an extremely unlikely romance that was a mistake from the word go, but eliminated the need for Marple's nephew.
They did go for class. In a short play scene the actress is a blink-and-you'll miss her Harriet Walter!
It's not a bad retelling of Christie's story, but it's hard to follow. The confusion caused from watching this version may send you scurrying to the book. HOWEVER, if you see this version before reading the book, you must realize that, though the basic tale of "Gwenda" isn't so different (except that she comes from India as an adult and not from New Zealand, and she's only engaged and not married), all the rigmarole of the traveling performers will not be there. It works fine on film, but even if Agatha Christie had wanted her book done this way, it would take a P. G. Wodehouse to pull off the writing.
A word about Geraldine McEwan's performance . As as American, when I first saw the Hickson Marples I did not realize that in England Hickson was as well known for comic turns as for serious roles. Seeing her performances in that new light helped me understand a lot of what she was doing as an actress. Also, Hickson comes off as much more the Marple I see in Christie's books. Nosy, a bit crotchety, sphinx-like. Geraldine McEwan seems too cheerful and friendly; and she often has an "I know something you don't know" smirk. As I said, she's more viewer friendly, but a departure from Marple as I always envisioned the old bag.