Sparkling Cyanide (2003)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Best movie ever!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Sparkling Cyanide is an Agatha Christie tale brought into the modern world. Unfortunately this take doesn't quite work. A football chairman's wife is murdered and there are several potential suspects. Unlike many Agatha Christie adaptations this one has a curious lack of suspense. The characters are mainly lifeless which is surprising given the quality of the cast. This can only be put down to a poor script. Like another reviewer mentioned, this film could have been done within the hour but is instead dragged out too long. The reveal is no real surprise and all in all I was quite pleased when it ended. Although not terrible this is a disappointingly dull adaptation. Not recommended unless as a time filler.

Say what you will about Agatha Christie's prose, but at least she could cobble together a reasonable plot. There were some dreadful Christie movies made in the 1970's and 80's, mainly for the US market. However, more recent treatments for UK TV starring Joan Hickson as Marple and David Suchet as Poirot lifted the game somewhat.Sparkling Cyanide was far from being Christie's worst book. This movie, on the other hand, is a strong contender for worst adaptation of one of her books. The dialogue is so stilted that even Christie would blush and the clunking efforts to modernise the story are cringe-making. The writers clearly thought the idea of retired people using mobile phones and email so original that it should serve as a major plot line. The lead actors are miscast and, at times, look as if they are mentally firing their agents as the execrable dialogue sticks in their throats.The script is leaden, the plot turgid and the final product shameful. Avoid.

Pauline Collins, Oliver Ford Davies head an all star cast as the husband and wife secret service agents, including Jonathon Firth and Susan Hampshire in this classy adaptation of the 1983 smash.When the beautiful and wealthy Rosemary Barton (Rachel Shelley) is poisoned with Potassium Cyanide in her glass of champagne at posh nightclub among friends, it seems as if no one had the opportunity, or the motive to do the deed. Which leads the couple to consider the history of suicide. As the ageing detectives uncover a secret affair with a government minister (James Wilby) a secret abortion, two scorned women (Lia Williams, Clare Holman) and a sister, (Chloe Howman) who stands to inherit her fortune. The wise Doctor and the gruff and grumpy Colonel realise they are dealing with a dangerous and psychotic killer and must work around the clock, and rely on some unorthodox methods to reveal their identity.When Rosemary's much older and much wealthier husband, (Kenneth Cranham) is also murdered in the same circumstances, the detectives are set on a different track for the motive for the killings. With potential embarrassment for the government looming the detectives must face a race against time to prevent the killer killing a third time.

"Sparkling Cyanide" is one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels. So you can imagine my delight when I heard of a new film of it, starring Oliver Ford-Davis. But, alas, this does no-where near justice to the original book. They've kept about two names the same (Lucilla, Iris), added about 10 new characters, and changed most of the original characters around to fit a modern-day setting. The detectives are two elderly MI5 agents (compare that to the respectable retired colonel in the book), it just doesn't work, investigating the murder of an uneducated footballer's wife at a nightclub (compare that to the glamorous wife of a successful businessman who dies at a high-class resteraunt in the book). The solution isn't really explained at all, the interval of two years is clumsily merged into two weeks, and Rosemary Barton is portrayed as a wrist-slitting slut, a tragic loss of one of Agatha Christie's most beautiful descriptions. The only member of the cast who can act is Oliver Ford-Davis, whose talent is pointlessly wasted. Perhaps this film was meant to appeal to the younger generation. It doesn't. I represent the younger generation, this isn't right. If you've never heard of Agatha Christie before, and like things on the TV like "Silent Witness", I suppose this is aimed at you. But you won't like it. If you're a die-hard Agatha Christie fan, like me, follow the advice of Rosalind Hicks, her daughter, who hates the film, and "stick to the book".