Thursday murder club

[Magicmonster]

I couldn’t see a thread re the Netflix movie. Im only 15 mins in but Elizabeth in particular is rather different to how she is in my head! What did everyone think of the film?

Still watching it. Ron is doing my fucking head in. Horrendously crap casting, the man can’t do accents! Also Jason. And Chris the man copper. The women are okay.

It looks nice enough. Gently funny so far.

ETA Why do both cops seem so completely moronic?

Go to the 'Film discussion forum '. There's a long thread about it.

Watched it last night, enjoyed it though Ron was odd. I have heard there will be a follow up.

I gave up on it. Absolute tripe. What a waste of Helen Mirren.

Really disappointed in it. Just watched it. Pierce Brosnan was poor,the whole thing pedantic and police portrayed as utter morons.

They were all just in it fr the money..absolute drivel

It was very gentle, wasn’t it? I watched it with DS (13) and it was a nice easy watch for us to share together on a lazy afternoon but not something I’d watch as a ‘proper’ film in the evening. I haven’t read the book so had no preconceptions which may have helped.

I love the books and thought I'd be disappointed with the film. However, I it was better than expected.

I watched it with my DD17 who is now talking about reading the books.

Im sure the end is different to the book though

Got halfway through and gave up. Pierce Brosnan is completely wrong for it. I like Helen Mirren as Elizabeth but either the writing or the acting has failed to capture the Joyce I imagined. They also seem to have completely failed to capture the charm of the books too. Very disappointing.

I haven't read the book so didn't know any of the characters but quite liked it, it was like some of those series like The Marlow Murders.

I thought Joyce was completely miscast. She was far too “posh”!

I also thought the editing was dreadful, they cut away from many scenes far too quickly so you didn’t have time to digest what was happening. The only scenes where this didn’t seem to happen were the ones with Stephen in them, they were beautifully shot and edited.

Also the police officer and David Tennant’s characters were silly characatures of how they appeared in the books.

David Tennant can only do caricatures I think.

My main gripe was that Joyce wasn’t as feisty and Bogdan not so self assured

The whole thing was badly cast although Donna and Steven were good.

Yeah, me too I gave up on its surprisingly quickly. Couldn't get into it.

I was worried it would be bad when I saw the trailer and sadly yes bloody awful 😣

I don’t think the actors read the books at all!! Poor casting for some of the characters and if they’d read the books they’d have known that 🙄

Easy watch though

Thank goodness. I thought it was just me. The whole thing is over done and panto like. Lost all the acerbic British humour. DD hasn't read the books and is enjoying the easy watching, but the whole thing is off. Plus, I had them in comfortable but not extravagant housing set ups, based on what I had seen of interviews with RO and his Mum. And the whole age thing is just a parody. Joyce in particular is incredibly disappointing. Like they are all of a different era.

Right. Rant over. 😁

Loved the books. Fed up of the hype. Movie a disappointment.

Haven’t read the book but it was a nice easy watch and I loved the scenery. Agree Pierce Brosnan wasn’t quite right for the part but other than that I am going against the grain and in saying we enjoyed it.

I had the same reaction but posted to the Films thread with a link to Helen Lewis’ review - you may find the review interesting, I think she sums up the problems with it quite well.

Casting not bad but Joyce was indeed too posh and Ron was completely wrong.
Bogdan was a bit rougher around the edges in my head too

There are 3 (4?) books

Haven't read the book/s so came to it prepared to be impressed.....turned over after 15mins, boring drivel, not rescued by the famous cast.

I enjoyed it - very gentle and cosy. Ben Kingsley and Jonathan Pryce were easily the best characters. I would have preferred Fiona Shaw as Elizabeth, and I agree that Bogdan was a bit too smooth. I missed Joyce's diary entries, but I'm not sure how they would have worked in the film.

Jonathan Pryce was an absolute delight. God, I love him. I thought that Tom Ellis was nice as Jason too. Donna was good but the film made her much less intelligent than the book. The rest of the casting did not work for me, although all of the actors are ones I usually enjoy and they all did the best they could.

The less said about the major departure from the book's plot the better; genuinely no idea why they did that.

I think the problem generally with these books is that so much of the charm is in the narrative rather than the dialogue. It's always a challenge to convey that in a film. Perhaps it would have been better as a series.

YES. Fiona Shaw would have been a much better Elizabeth.