Who payed the critics

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

... but this was an excellent British film. I can't really say if it was suspense, thriller, or even fantasy. The beginning has five wealthy people sitting down to dinner with the daughter in the family, Sheila, announcing her engagement to Gerald, who is obviously approved of by the family. The son, Eric, is obviously a cynic. Lots of time is spent having the camera pan over all of the food. The reason why will be obvious later. The father, Mr. Birling, says that the young people are marrying at a time of great prosperity and that war is impossible in 1912, that the world is changing too fast for war (WRONG - won't be the last time either for dear old dad). Then he says that the family must try and stay out of the scandal sheets since he is expecting to be appointed to an important post and with Sheila's upcoming marriage. He really says this last part jokingly, as if anybody in that room could do something scandalous.And out of nowhere a police inspector appears in the dining room doorway. They even mention why he didn't knock. He says he is there because a young woman has just died of poisoning and he needs to ask them a few questions. He says he is not sure if it is suicide or murder. He goes to each family member in turn and shows them a photo of the girl but does not show the same photo to anybody else. Each person remembers the girl, and each did something - sometimes a very small thing just because that person was having a bad day - that led the dead girl on the road to ruin, ultimately placing her in a situation where she was desperate and felt she had no out but suicide. She was young, pretty, and smart, but she had no real family and no money, putting herself at the whim of the upper classes.After all of the revelations, Gerald goes outside for a walk to calm down and runs into a policeman he knows where he learns a shocking fact. What did he find out and what comes of it? Watch and find out.The whole point of the film I think is to show that each of us may be a small pebble on this earth, but in life's pond we can produce big ripples. In concert with other "pebbles" we can start off a chain reaction in a person's life that greatly affects them without really knowing or caring what we did until we are made to care and look at the result of our handiwork.This film was very suspenseful with lots of twists and turns. Alistair Sim was marvelous as the inspector, unfazed and deliberate throughout. I'd highly recommend it.

One evening in 1912, the well-to-do Birling family are celebrating the engagement of their daughter Sheila to family friend Gerald when a strange policeman, Inspector Poole, arrives with news of the suicide of a young woman, Eva Smith. It transpires the Birlings all had separate dealings with Eva, and may bear the responsibility for her fate ...John Boynton Priestley's 1946 play An Inspector Calls is a masterpiece of theatre and this film is an excellent screen adaptation, not to be missed. The plot details are brilliant, as each family member's cruel treatment of Eva is mercilessly exposed by the Inspector, piling hardship and misfortune upon her to its grim conclusion. But this is not a heavy-handed expose or moral lecture - each point is made with subtlety and clarity, and as the Birlings (particularly daughter and son) start to confront the enormity of their combined efforts we begin to feel almost as sorry for them as Eva. Like us all, they try to rationalise their actions, instead of accepting the simple truth that everything we do affects someone, often in ways we don't understand and fail to recognise. The other aspect of the story which fascinates me is the nature of Inspector Poole (or in the original text, Goole). I'm a sucker for Mysterious Dude characters, and he's one of the best. What is he ? He seems to have supernatural abilities, but again treated with delicate subtlety (like the moment he checks his watch just before Eric comes in), but is he a ghost, a ghoul (sic), an avenging angel, a phantom conjured by the force of the Birlings' collective guilt ? Sim is superb in the role, his hawkish stare and uncomfortable smile penetrating right into the heart of the family's shameful conscience. Of course, he is a plot device to bring across the social and political points Priestley wants to emphasise, but what a fabulous character. The direction is tight and tense; Hamilton was a skilled technician (he made four of the classic James Bond films) but he extracts all the emotional weight from the events in this very unique drama. There is one key difference between film and play, which is the characterisation of Eva via flashbacks. Whilst I understand the need for this, and Wenham's performance is good, I think the play is much stronger for Eva's absence. Literally seeing her somehow grounds the film more in the ordinary, but in the play she exists only in our imaginations, a definitive Everywoman, haunting our thoughts, which for me is the real strength of the story. Great films of plays are rare (see Wait Until Dark or Sleuth), but this is definitely one of the exceptions and a fine showcase of Priestley's salute to the dispossessed.

A toff English family dinner is interrupted by the appearance of Inspector Poole, he announces that a young lady has committed suicide by the ingestion of disinfectant. At first the family is oblivious as to why this concerns them, but as Poole interviews each family member, it's apparent that one thing binds them all to the mystery.Adapted from the J.B. Priestley stage play, An Inspector Calls is everything that was great about 50s British Cinema. Simple in structure it may be, but the lack of clogging in any form shines brighter than many a lavish production from this particular decade. The films cause is helped immensely by the quality of the writing, Desmond Davis adding further quality to the already great source provided by the talented Priestley. At first the film leads you to believe that it's going to be a one room interrogation piece, but thru a series of flash backs we are taken out of the room to follow this intriguing story to its quite brilliant finale. There are no histrionics from the actors in this piece, all of them are wonderful because they adhere to the necessity of letting the story be the star. Alastair Sim is perfectly cast as Inspector Poole, a large presence with those highly sympathetic eyes, Sim may be playing the main character, yet he's playing second fiddle to the fleshing out of the Birling family deconstruction, it's a wonderful case where the acting glue is holding it all together.Director Guy Hamilton does a smashing job of making the film permanently edgy, a sense of unease is palpable throughout, and it's only during the final reel that the heart of the film shows its ace card, and even then, the makers have one more trick up their sleeves. Also worth mentioning is the editing from the sadly uncredited Geoffrey Botterill, so many films containing flash back sequences feel intrusive to the flow of a picture, it isn't here, it's spot on. An Inspector Calls is a wonderful mystery piece that is dotted with moments of unease, but all this would go to waste if the pay off was merely a damp squib, it thankfully isn't, and the likes of Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont were surely nodding in approval.Highly recommended 9/10.*Footnote:Alastair Sim is listed on this site as playing Inspector Goole, that is the characters name in the Priestley play, but i can assure everyone that his characters name is definitely Inspector Poole for this film version.

This plays just fine as a straight forward mystery movie, but the play has more potential than that and as a straight forward mystery without the rich suggestive overtones the plot is admittedly a bit out there. So when you play something straight that isn't straight what you get is this.Guy Hamilton doesn't add much to the proceedings and the performers mostly go through the motions in a surface way that is totally at odds with the material. There is no building sense of doom or desperation to most of the thing. It's slow and steady. Actually much of the flat footed surface approach I'd put the blame on Hamilton. At his worst he was one of those, "oh this is all just a movie" approach to too much of his output. Part of this made him perfect for Goldfinger but also helped camp up and ultimately start to wreck the Bond films later on. Most of his pre Goldfiner work is, like this film, pretty flat.The music score is pretty lousy, though there isn't much of it, especially the stupid end credit music that further eats away the tone of the piece.There are risky elements for the time and had the film been made in America then it would have been a disaster. Sim is quite good but perhaps a bit too laid back, though he has most of the best moments performance wise, it is again a bit of a missed opportunity to have him not rip loose ever. His expression at the end is memorable. The young brother and sister character's probably come off best, though Bryan Forbes drunk act at one point turns into a good Stan Laurel or Charlie Chaplin thing, that isn't really appropriate.Well photographed and produced, the DVD is spotless. I suppose most or anyone who's heard of this story saw the lat 90's revival which I liked better than this film.So if you prefer your drawing room mysteries done very dry and very safe you'll love this film and it's good on that level if you can still buy into the things that don't stick perhaps to convention.But we'll have to wait for a less safe, more dramatic version of the very good source material rather than this film which prefers melodrama.