The A.B.C. Murders
                  
         
Director:
Year: 2018
Rating: 7.5

Still feeling under the weather and spending a lot of time in bed, I turned to another Agatha Christie three part TV BBC movie for comfort food. The ABC Murders is perhaps my least favorite of her Hercule Poirot mysteries. I recall figuring out who the murderer was long before Poirot did but it also took Poirot outside of his usual milieu of the wealthy and privileged that make it what was termed a "cozy" mystery. It is a serial killer. It was also the basis of the worst Christie film version ever - the 1965 Alphabet Murders starring Tony Randall as Poirot. An abomination so bad that Christie's friends forbid her from seeing it.

So I reluctantly went into this one ready to bail at any moment if I felt bored. And I never did - not so much because of the familiar plot that the film sticks to reasonably closely to though it is much darker in tone but because of the portrayal of Poirot by none other than John Malkovich. His portrayal is in no way within hailing distance of Christie's character, but he is rather fascinating. The setting is 1933 London and Poirot is a has-been - his old Scotland Yard contact Inspector Japp is in retirement and the Yard wants nothing to do with him. He looks tired, defeated at times, morose - living in a small dusty apartment with no valet and no Hastings - a shadow to the public of what he had been. The writers also throw in a subplot about Poirot in Belgium during the war which feels totally unconnected to the egotistical and fussy detective that we have come to know. Mainly though it is Malkovich who makes this film, looking depressed but determined throughout. Someone is taunting him with murders, playing a game with the once great detective who now entertains at fancy dinner parties with a murder mystery to be solved by the guests.

I wonder if they will make any more Poirot's with Malkovich. He adds layers beyond how other actors have portrayed him - again nothing like the book character but interesting nevertheless. There does seem to be a sudden interest in Christie's books in film with the Branagh's Poirot films (which are nothing like the book character either) and it seems that BBC is producing a few of them. This and Ordeal by Innocence both have terrific production values so they are not going cheap. Also, in the cast of note are Tara Fitzgerald, Andrew Buchan (Mark Latimer in Broadchurch) and playing the inspector is Rupert Grint who I admit to not recognizing at all from his Harry Potter days. Knowing who the killer is beforehand obviously subtracts from the suspense so giving this a fair rating is difficult. But excellent acting, a new sadder interpretation of Poirot and a wonderful dose of perversity still made it worthwhile.