Noah Cook

An excellent murder mystery and great performances abound in this short but engaging film. Ruth Bradley stars as Agatha Christie, the famous murder mystery writer and creator of the characters Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. The film begins at a time when Agatha Christie was dealing with both personal and professional life difficulties. Her marriage is on the verge of collapse and she is dealing with a case of writer's block. Enter Maple (Pippa Heywood), a grieving woman who's dear friend's murder has gone unsolved for six years. It isn't before long that Agatha gather's all the suspects in her family home, crafting a lie that she is a representative of a dead relative who has willed them an inheritance. The plan goes well, then goes wrong, and then we are off to the races with a quick witted film of intrigue and suspense. The film is also partially based on true events, as it purposes that this might have been where Agatha disappeared to for 11 days. She has no memory of what happened to her, and has remains one of the a true unsolved mystery. I have not read Agathe Christie's novels, but I have seen two of the film adaptations of "Murder on the Orient Express," and the spectacle of seeing a murder mystery like the one from Orient express is a joy to unravel. The film presents enough clues, red hearings, and genuine deconstructions of the tropes of a typical murder mystery that kept me guess whodunit? Ruth Bradley is fantastic in the role of Agatha Christie, showing a full range of emotions to fully flesh out the great detective writer. She is a cool and quick witted detective, a distressed wife, a loving mother, and a caring friend and confidant - she is all of these things, yet it always feels like we are seeing other aspects of the same character in different situations. She is playing a fully formed person thrust into the role of a detective, and shows the trials and tribulations of doing so quite well. The rest of the cast stand out with great and layered performances, including Bebe Cave as a meek nurse, Ralph Ineson as the harsh Detective Inspector Dicks, and the aforementioned Pippa Heywood as a grieving friend.The rest of the cast each has their moments to shine as well with performances that makes them suspicious, but never to the point that would make them the clear culprit. The film isn't perfect, as some of the suspects names are given so quickly at the beginning that it is hard to figure out how they were suspected in the first place. The scene is so quick and focused on another fact that you hardly have time to put the names to faces and clearly understand their backstories and connections to the deceased. When Agatha talks about one suspect, it took me a second to figure out who it was. Also, the movie takes a little time to much time get to the actual mystery, which means that while the audience gets to know about Agatha, the mystery stuff does not start up until 20 or so minutes into the move. In any case, despite some errors, Agatha and the Truth of Murder is a fun and enjoyable mystery movie. It may not have been written by Agatha Christie, but it really does feel like you are watching one of her stories play out on the screen. The film is currently available on Netflix.