Film criticism: The crooked house

Film versions of Agatha Christie’s works are like sand by the sea, but their heyday is long gone. Apart from the somewhat bumpy remake of “Mord im Orientexpress” from last year, it has long been very quiet about the former guarantor for sold cinema tickets and ratings. But now someone dares again to her legacy and doesn’t rely on the well known names Marple or Poirot, but tries his hand at a lesser known, but equally confused murderer story of Christie.

CONTENTS

When the heavily wealthy industrial magnate Leonides dies unexpectedly, the news goes through the press like wildfire. The young private detective Hayward follows the news with particular interest, because he has a painful past with his dead granddaughter. When she suddenly sits in his office and asks him to find out if her grandfather was murdered, he can’t guess what he’s getting into with this investigation.

The more than eccentric family members and residents of the deceased’s huge mansion make Hayward’s life and investigation more than difficult. Moreover, it quickly turns out that Leonides was actually murdered and a first suspicion falls on the young, second wife of the millionaire. But before he knows it, the events turn up and more lives are at stake.

© 2018 Twentieth Century Fox

CRITICS

As someone who read the original many years ago, in his youth, and who doesn’t remember any plot details, but clearly remembers the basic structure and mood of the book, I dare claim to have an extremely faithful adaptation in front of me. What we have is a classic thriller, which could also come from the heyday of the genre, the 50s – 80s. And that’s both a curse and a blessing, because while there are certainly still a lot of fans of this genre of film today, I dare to doubt that the classic style will appeal to a young, modern audience.

The crooked house follows the typical pattern of an Agatha Christie novel. After the crime that opens the plot, we get to know the squad of suspects and their respective motivations and characteristics during the interrogations and observations of the protagonist. The quickly found perpetrator, who turns out to be innocent and the plot that becomes more and more aggravated by further crimes, are also well-known stylistic devices of the genre. Nevertheless, or even because of that, the whole thing works excellently, as long as you can get something out of this kind of film.

© 2018 Twentieth Century Fox

A welcome change from the well-known scheme is the fact that our detective is also personally involved in the matter because of his connection to his granddaughter. In addition, this story does without the classic meeting of all actors at the end, in order to roll up the events in front of the assembled team and to expose the culprit. The chosen ending is indeed thrilling until the very last minute, but unfortunately doesn’t know how to start with its last moments and instead tears the viewer out of the movie with such an abrupt “The End” that you have to ask yourself if it couldn’t have been better solved.

So what works perfectly as a classic crime thriller of old school will hardly keep an audience that grew up after this era awake. The structure is much too slow, the first half of the movie consists almost exclusively of conversations and many of the motives and backgrounds have been seen hundreds of times in a different form. Moreover, the protagonist, despite his involvement in the case, is by far the least interesting character of the story.

© 2018 Twentieth Century Fox

Luckily, however, the weird family members of the murdered man make this go away again. Here, too, the well-known clichés are served up (the unsuccessful actress who is not averse to alcohol, the sons who strive for the favour of the father, etc.), but the cast, which is very good due to the bank, gets the best out of the characters. Especially Glenn Close and Christina Hendricks should be mentioned here, the two ladies deliver first-class performances. There are no disappointments, even Max Irons as Hayward does his thing really well, even if his role doesn’t really give much away.

The craftsmanship is also oriented The crooked house to the classics of the genre. A leisurely camera that always remains fixed on the actors and an equally calm and unagitated cut. The latter dares a handful of interesting changes of scenery, but doesn’t lean too far out of the window. As expected, there are hardly any special effects, but an excellent set and costume design that beautifully conveys the 50s in which the film takes place. The music is barely noticeable except for a montage towards the end, but there it shows an enormous effect, I would have liked to have seen more of it.

© 2018 Twentieth Century Fox

FAZIT

For all those who are happy about every repetition of one of the classic crime novels from the last century, or passionately follow various crime series, The Krumme Haus offers a good opportunity to take a trip to the next cinema. Because in its genre the film can convince without restrictions. Seen in the big picture of today’s cinema, however, the judgement unfortunately falls a little bit off. The whole style is not very contemporary, the first half is quite tough and quite matter-of-fact, you have seen everything that is offered there, already damn often in similar form.