Crooked House

Gilles Paquet-Brenner's take on Agatha Christie's novel "Crooked House," with a script by Julian Fellows ("Downton Abbey") and a wonderfully starry cast offering some campy performances, and filmed on location in the stately Hughenden Manor, has all the ingredients for being a far better movie than it is. Despite all these elements, the end result is a rather pedestrian film that seems more apropos to a low budget made-for-television movie.

The story, set in post-WWII England, starts when private detective Charles Haywood (Max Irons) is commissioned by his ex lover Sophie (Stefanie Martini) to investigate the recent death of her wealthy grandfather, in which she suspects foul play. The manor house here the death occurred is home to a host of extended family, each of whom think they have benefited from the will of the late patriarch.

There's the very eccentric sister of his first wife, Lady Edith (Glenn Close); son Roger (Christian McKay), currently running the main family into the� ground�and his�wife,�Clemency (Amanda Abbington); failed gambler and bitter older son Philip�(Julian Sands) and his unsuccessful actress wife�Magda (Gillian Anderson); and his vampy, much younger American ex-showgirl wife Brenda (Christina Hendricks�).

Once it is established that the wealthy tycoon has indeed been poisoned, the private eye -- along with the very fatherly Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Tavener (Terence Stamp) -- determines that everyone has a motive.�When a new will surfaces that now leaves everything to Brenda, she becomes the chief suspect and is whisked away in handcuffs. In true Christie fashion another murder follows and the killer turns out to be the one person that nobody suspected.

It is all beautifully photographed, and the dramatically lit manor reeks of a grand and fading lifestyle, complete with highly spirited performance from a top-notch cast. But even they cannot always breath life into Christie's stereotypical aristocratic characters.

"The Crooked House" was, reputedly, one of Dame Agatha's personal favorite novels, but I don't think this movie version would even make her top ten list.