Simply Perfect

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

All the acting, all story, aside - I found this movie technically annoying to watch and admittedly I may be the only person who has viewed this "movie" that thinks so. I abhor the mixing of two different art forms into one production. Video tape is one form of artistic expression and celluloid film is another. The playback look is obviously different for each and I can spot the difference in an instant. This movie mixes video taped interiors with filmed exteriors. Video tape and live theater are too in-your-face real and take away from the escapism of film.That said, I enjoyed Cheryl Campbell's acting, as always, and vote the acting ensemble a 10. The fast-passed dialog made it difficult to comprehend each word uttered by the actors at the beginning with their bantering back and forth before placing the clocks under the bed but again I blame the use of video tape for that problem. There could be a faint echo in the studio that accounts for this.

"The Seven Dials Mystery" is yet another great mind game from Agatha Christie, which starts out as a rather lighthearted romp, then turns into a fairly simple spy story, but as it approaches the end it takes several 180-degree plot turns that make you re-examine everything you THOUGHT you knew or had taken for granted. These turns also reveal that James Warwick's somewhat exaggerated "jolly-good-British-fellow" performance is actually well-thought-out. As a film, "The Seven Dials Mystery" is flat, paceless, chatter-y and stagy, and although the production is handsome, the fact that it was shot on video makes it look cheaper than it would otherwise. But the strength of Christie's story carries it through - if you're patient. **1/2 out of 4.

Not the best Agatha Christie adaptation, but one of the better ones. The direction could've been more taut at times, but this is a treasure for any Agatha Christie fan(I have been for almost 9 years). It is beautifully made, handsomely shot with splendid locations/settings and evocative period detail, particularly those cars. If you haven't seen the film yet and are wondering about faithfulness or lack of it, Seven Dials Mystery is very faithful(with one or two subtle changes), like the Russian version of And Then There Were None it is like the pages of the book and prose come to life. And to me it doesn't suffer from being too faithful. Seven Dials Mystery is slow in pace, but considering that Christie's mysteries take time to unfold this approach was appropriate. The length I also thought was fine. The dialogue is very good if talky, true in detail and spirit to Christie's style, and the story even with the pacing and that the second half is more suspenseful than the first is engrossing and keeps us guessing until the ending, which is a surprise. Of the acting, John Gielgud steals the show and Harry Andrews is similarly terrific. James Warrick and Cheryl Campbell(though I can see her character is going to divide viewers) bring great humour and charm to their characters. All in all, a classic Agatha Christie mystery. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Lately I have been watching Agatha Christie stories that have been made into movies. Some of them, like Murder on the Nile, and Murder on the Orient Express, are great films. This one is not. I would suggest you pass on this film and watch either version of 10 Little Indians instead. This film suffers from unimaginative directing, poor acting, and poor writing. Some of the plot devices were so bad I could have done better. This is a very poor film, I would recommend avoiding it.