CROOKED HOUSE

(2017) Please indulge a bit of history here: I "discovered" Agatha Christie at the age of 12, in 1974 when I found a movie tie-in paperback of Murder on the Orient Express in a drugstore. The film was due out in theaters soon, so I wanted to read the book first - and that book did it. My fate and lifelong bond with the Queen of Crime herself (who remains my favorite writer of all time, 43 years later) was sealed, and I immediately did everything in my power to get everything she wrote to read them. When I got to Crooked House ... "I was blown away" is an understatement. To this day, I still remember the exact four-word sentence that revealed who the murderer was, and how I went cold all over, my mouth falling open, when I read it. It's still my favorite Christie novel, and indeed was Christie's favorite of her own works; also the only one of her novels that her publishers fairly begged her to change the ending to, before it was published, but she steadfastly (and blessedly) refused. To finally have this brilliant book taken to the screen was both exciting and ominous, but with Glenn Close in it I was hoping for good things ... and am more than happy to say that the film version of Crooked House is as dark and moody as the novel, with a terrific script (Julian Fellowes of "Downton Abbey" fame is credited as one of the three writers) that - though it's been so long since I read it, I can't speak for how absolutely close it sticks to the book - stylistically captures the novel and its story to a "T".

Max Irons, who officially graduates to more complex roles here (though his performance is a bit uneven in places) plays Charles Hayward, son of a deceased Scotland Yard detective whose career path so far is less stellar. as he is trying to keep his own fledgling private detective agency open ... when a former fling with whom Charles has a complicated past, Sophia Leonides (Stefanie Martini) comes to him with a job: her grandfather, the wealthy Greek tycoon Aristide Leonides, has just died, making world headlines, and Sophia believes he was murdered. She wants Charles to prove the same before the police take over the place and cause a huge scandal, and though working with a Scotland Yard crony (Terence Stamp) of his dad's anyway, Charles find himself with unprecedented access to the house - and boy, what a house. From the sister of his first, aristocratic wife who died young (Glenn Close), to his new and much younger ex-dancer wife (Christina Hendricks), to his two sons and their wives and children, the Leonides family is quite possibly the most dysfunctional in human existence, and any one of them could have easily and happily poisoned the old man; opportunity, means, and motive abound. As Charles digs deeper, aided by Aristides's twelve-year-old notebook-carrying granddaughter, Josephine - who started playing detective before Charles even got on the scene - secret motives and hidden passions come to light, making Charles consider whether he can trust even Sophia herself. When an attempt is made on Josephine's life, Charles also finds himself wondering just how much she knows - and how far a killer might go to silence her for good. Crooked House is a bit of a slow burn at first, setting up the crime and family history and their various stories, but it's never boring and when the last half kicks in you'll find yourself unable to break away from watching. Performances are good, especially from Close, and the film's darkness only adds to the tension that builds up to what is probably the absolute best way possible the writers and filmmakers could have chosen for revealing the killer, and shooting what could otherwise have been a fairly static finale (compared to how it was in the novel; that much I do remember). Despite a few slow moments in the first hour, Crooked House remains a crackerjack adaptation that also stands a hundred percent on its own as a terrific mystery film ... bringing back so many memories to me of why it does remain my favorite of Christie's novels. (PG-13)  8.5/10 stars