Cathardincu
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
ThrillMessage
There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.
Kirpianuscus
who could be discovered as embroidery of speculations. or as coherent explanation of an obscure moment of life . but its virtue is the meet between Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffmann. and the atmosphere. and, in same measure, the story who has the gift to be reflection of a period more than reflection of a life. this is the key of film - status of woman, need to escape from pressure, desire to become anonymous, the impossible love who could be a second chance and the drops of great literature from Emma Bovary to Anna Karenina. a beautiful film and impressive performances. and the flavor of a lost time. using the figure of Agatha Christie as pretext.
bkoganbing
Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best. Maybe Agatha Christie back in 1926 just wanted to get a way for a bit and at the same time give her estranged husband a bit of a bad time. To this day we don't know what happened to the famed author for those dozen days in 1926 when she left her rather expensive ride abandoned and disappeared. Leaves a lot of room for speculation.Which is what Agatha is, pure speculation. During her disappearance where shortly before she learned that husband Timothy Dalton had been out stepping with his secretary, Vanessa Redgrave as Agatha had an appointment with American gossip columnist Dustin Hoffman who's a Walter Winchell type and so gauche as versus these very well mannered and upper class British.Hoffman turns an investigative reporter, something Winchell never was as he was always relying on press agent tips and proves better than the police as personified by Timothy West.But this is all whole cloth folks, Christie's heirs attempted to sue.It's a nice ensemble piece of work Agatha with both Vanessa Redgrave and Dustin Hoffman giving most believable performances. Well, it could have happened that way.
billdedman-1
Go, instead, for the gorgeous theme music by Johnny Mandel (Emily, The Shadow of your Smile -theme from "The Sandpiper"-, A Time For Love,) which Paul Willians put words to after they titled it "Close Enough for Love." It has become a jazz standard and has been recorded by every worthwhile artist playing or singing jazz. It's one of Johnny Mandel's best efforts, and that's saying a LOT! Stan Getz has a very nice version (instumental, of course.) The lyrics are some of Paul Williams' best. Starts out, "You and I, an un-matched pair..." Not perfect, no, but "close enough, for love." Bittersweet words... I thought the music, alone was well worth the price of admission. I rented the movie as soon as it came out on VHS (this was 28 years ago(!), and made an audio cassette of the theme so I could learn to play it. Songs that good don't come along very often...
ozthegreatat42330
Although this story is fictional, it is based on a real mystery involving Agatha Christie Mallowen, the most well known mystery writer in the world. Shorty after her book "The Murder of Roger Akyroyd" won a prestigious English award, Christie disappeared for some twenty days, and to this day no one knows what happened to her in that period. This story is a good supposition, however, and worthy of the pen of the queen of mystery writers herself. Redgrave is excellent as Christie, while Timothy Dalton is suitably obnoxious as the insufferable, philandering, abusive and adulterous colonel Archibald Christie, who dismissed his wife's fame and talent as a mere nothing, while carrying on an affair that he did not even attempt to hide from her. If there was a weak character in the film it was Hoffman's American reporter, secretly in love with Christie from afar, who supposedly figures out her intentions in time to stop her. It was because of this weak point in the production that I had to rate this film as less than great. Still, it is the kind of story that mystery fans the world over will enjoy. Worth a watch. Agatha, where were you really?
