Really Surprised!

Just what I expected

As Good As It Gets

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

In the last role of her career, Helen Hayes gives a fine performance as Jane Marple, in this Agatha Christie whodunit, set mostly at an English estate. Although not one of my favorite Christie puzzles, the story is still pretty good, and worth watching, once. Character relationships are a bit complex, but the suspect pool is still manageable at seven or eight people.With breaks where the commercials would be, and cheap, nondescript background music, the film has a very made-for-TV look and feel. Some of the dialogue in the first ten minutes can be easily misinterpreted, so you must listen carefully or you will be led astray. As usual, clues are pleasantly subtle. Once you figure out the main clue, identifying the killer is easy.In addition to Helen Hayes, actor Leo McKern, as the gruff inspector, also gives a nice performance; he seems like he's enjoying his role. Other performances tend to be perfunctory or stagy. Bette Davis, looking embalmed, has little to do; mostly she just sits or stands, as she mouths her few lines, and makes facial expressions suitable to the scene. I suspect she was brought in only for her star power, to draw in viewers."Murder With Mirrors" will appeal mostly to viewers who like whodunits, especially Agatha Christie whodunits. Although the story is a somewhat generic murder mystery, it does have entertainment value.

If "A Caribbean Mystery" (1983) was the traditional "murder at an exotic resort during the holidays" story, "Murder with Mirrors" (1985) is the traditional "murder in a huge English countryside manor" story. It was the second and last appearance of Helen Hayes as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, and it's a shame she didn't make any more: she is a very wily yet very human Marple, and acts quite youthfully for her 80+ years. The films themselves are better than the TV movies with Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot that were made around the same time, mainly because they don't overplay the comedy. Although the big names in the supporting cast are an old Bette Davis and a young Tim Roth, if anyone stands out it's the beautiful redhead Liane Langland and Leo McKern as the inspector on the case. The story contains the typical AC false assumptions and crafty illusions, and I, for one, did not have a clue what was going on until Miss Marple and the inspector revealed it. A good solid outing for fans of the genre. (***)

I saw this videotape because I am a rabid Bette Davis fan and I am trying to see all her films (I'm actually getting pretty close). However, in hindsight, I really wish I hadn't seen this dreary film. Despite having Miss Davis and Helen Hayes in the lead as Miss Marple, the film had almost no energy and had so many logical flaws it could hardly be considered a mystery at all.Helen Hayes perhaps comes off best in the movie, as she is a competent though less than inspired Miss Marple. Leo McKern as the chief inspector just looks awfully old and immobile (though in one silly scene they make it look like he is running after a suspect). And Bette Davis is pretty depressing to look at, as she was in horrible health at the time the film was made and looked like death warmed over,...but this didn't impair her since her character was supposed to be old and frail. It's too bad, though, that this part was so small and insignificant. John Mills is just okay as Davis' husband--he was a terrific actor and it's a shame his role was so dumb. As for the rest of the cast, they were complete unknowns and deserve to remain that way! Their acting was very amateurish and shrill for the most part.Now despite my complaints about some of the acting, my real problem with the movie was the script. I am not an Agatha Christie reader, though I doubt if the blame for this bilge could be dumped on her but instead on some screen writer. Many of the characters were completely one-dimensional caricatures and seemed so unbelievable (such as the hot-headed American, his histrionic and confusing wife, etc.). Also, again and again, logic seemed to go out the window and characters did the most impossible and stupid things--particularly when two of them died in the most ridiculous ways. First, the doctor (whose role was completely ill-defined and vague) tried to escape by driving through the gate surrounding the mansion. The car SHOULD have been able to plow through it, but instead explodes! Second, the young man who tries to escape by paddling across a small pond. The boat begins to sink (who would keep a leaky boat at the lake--especially one that leaky?) and he drowns even though he appears to be only about 50 feet from shore! And, when this hapless fool is drowning, the young cop tries to save him but first starts to undo his coat and his tie and puts up the most pathetic attempt at rescue I have seen since the Three Stooges films! As for the mystery itself, I really lost interest in who did what or why. By the time the movie was over, I was begging for it to stop. Rotten acting and a terrible script made this an endurance contest!Considering just how BAD this film was, I can imagine that poor Dame Agatha is spinning in her grave like a rotisserie! She deserved better.

Actresses as varied as Margaret Rutherford and Angela Lansbury have played Agatha Christie's sleuth Miss Marple on the big screen. Rutherford was hugely popular at it, Lansbury less so. Joan Hickson has, thanks to a large series of TV films, become one of the most noted actresses in the role and many peoples' favorite. Here, prior to the Hickson films, is Hayes' second and last go round as the busybody with a nose for sniffing out criminal culprits. As darling as she is, she is hardly the epitome of this very British and very well-known (in the literary sense) character. She meets with a man who is expressing concern over the well-being of his step-mother, an old friend of Hayes'. So she boards a train and heads to the country estate of the family where it seems as though the step-mother (Davis) is being slowly poisoned to death. Davis' husband (Mills) has turned the estate into a sort of Home for Wayward Boys (one of whom is a young Roth.) Also on the estate is Davis' daughter Tutin and her niece Langland and nephew-in-law Laughlin. She is watched over by a stern and unfriendly caregiver (de la Tour.) Before Hayes can even delve into the poisoning issue, another member of the household is killed, shifting her focus to the discovery of the murderer. Before it's all over, her own life has been endangered a couple of times as she sniffs too close to the truth. This rather humdrum film benefits from authentic English scenery and locations, but really doesn't provide a lot in the way of entertainment. Hayes is always worth watching and is awfully cute at times (and has fun -badly- delivering a theatrical monologue as her character), but she fails to convince as a British subject and isn't given a script that's strong enough to help her form an interesting character. Mills, always a reliable actor as well, has another rather colorless role. Tutin tries to inject some drama into her somewhat silly part and McKern seems to be enjoying his blustery role of a police inspector. The bulk of the rest of the cast is portrayed by relative nobodys who would be hard pressed to pass muster on "Murder She Wrote" or "Father Dowling Mysteries". The biggest downfall of all, however, is Davis. Her character is supposed to be a sweet, caring, beloved Englishwoman who is suffering flu-like symptoms which could be poisoning. Instead, she's a brittle, severe, wraith-like, American who looks worse, upon inspection, than what Vera Miles discovered in the basement of the Bates house in "Psycho"! And people are scripted to keep telling her how great she looks! Someone as obviously ill as she really should NOT have been working, but she was determined to continue and apparently her name still drew 'em in, even in this state. The TV film drew over 20 million viewers! Difficult to the end, she was hellishly rude and obstinate with virtually everyone on the set, particularly Hayes. She has a personal makeup artist credited who was surely instructed to do her up the way she was done (with thick black false eyelashes and pencil thin brows), but it certainly was less than flattering. At this stage, she couldn't give her lines anything more than a screeching croak and had no facial expressions left. It is a sad, horrible disaster to see her wobble through this project (and she wasn't done! She filmed three more TV and feature films after this!) At least in "The Whales of August", her character was closer to her own life status than when she tried to pull off a healthy, appealing woman here. It should be noted that she and Mills were the same age even though she looks like his mother. And Hayes is only 8 years older than Davis, but looks younger. It is a shame that Hayes had to end her screen career in mediocre tripe like this, but as she said herself, at least she never had to resort to horror films or anything a family couldn't watch together.