CROOKED HOUSE

Movie Review #3976: CROOKED HOUSE

Agatha Christie outing on Netflix with all the classic whodunnit ingredients: highly dysfunctional rich family, hidden agendas, despised intruders, red herrings and a gumshoe engaged to solve the mystery, which of course he ultimately does.

Lotsa twists and turns as we run through the proceedings, flicking our suspicions from one possible culprit to another while knowing full well it’s usually the most unlikely character who turns out to be the killer.

Good performances from veterans Glenn Close and Terence Stamp with X-Files’ Gillian Anderson turning up in a most unflattering brunette wig! The rest of the cast is adequate but a few go a little unnecessarily OTT and we’re left wondering whether they’re being set up to be the killer or merely overacting. And it doesn’t actually take too much to figure the culprit yet the conclusion is a bit unexpected and perhaps even a little disturbing.

Set in mid50s England, the cinematography is suitably gloomy and the depiction that ‘it’s always raining’ probably pretty close to the mark. Amusing albeit routine but one to check out for Agatha fans. 

7/10