Dreadfully Boring

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Robert Goddard is a fantastic author, specialising in twisty and turny British historical thrillers. I was psyched when I saw that "Into the Blue' had been adapted for the small screen, being one of the finest book in a 'trilogy' of sorts. Harry Barnett is highly engaging character, and John Thaw portrays him well, warts and all. The only deterrent to the TV version is that it's far too short. It would have, in this writers opinion, worked better as a mini-series, as the movie leaves out whole scenes from the book and loses the feeling of helplessness that Harry Barnett feels to his plight. On the whole, "Into the Blue" is disappointing, not living up to a really good book. Check out the follow-ups, "Into the Sun" and "Never go Back".

Into the Blue is the story of Harry Barnett (John Thaw), an easy-going failure who lives on Rhodes as the caretaker of a house belonging to his good friend, the wealthy Allan Dysart (Matthew Marsh). They've known each other for years. One night Harry meets Heather Mallender (Abigail Cruttenden) on the beach. He takes her back to the house. They spend two or three days together...then she disappears. The Rhodes police think Harry might of killed her. Dysart shows up and gets him out of jail. Harry immediately leaves for London to find out more about Heather. Among the things he finds is that her sister died mysteriously and that Dysart had employed her. It's not long before unpleasant things begin to happen to Harry. Into the Blue is a lumbering mystery, filled with camera shots peeking threateningly from the bushes and around the sides of trees, with the occasional heavy breathing we can hear off camera, with an ominous score filled with musical clichés and with obviously suspicious characters lurking after Harry. It also has several people who are efficiently converted into corpses. That's not a bad thing, especially as we realize all the corpses when they could move on their own had some kind of relationship with Allan Dysart John Thaw, as great a television actor as he was, looks too old for the part. He was 55 and could have passed in bad light for 65. His bed scene with Cruttenden could have been a young woman in bed not just with a man old enough to be her father, but her grandfather. And Thaw not just looks ten years older than Dysart, his employer, friend, protector, rich businessman, former politician and widower, which would be appropriate to the plot, Thaw could pass for 20 years older. This isn't just being picky, it's one of the factors that disrupts the story and turns Into the Blue from a clunky but intriguing mystery into a clunky, intriguing mystery which primarily is a vehicle for Thaw. But, oh, what potential. As old as Thaw looks he is still a hugely engaging, likable, and intelligent actor. The storyline is clever, with a puzzle that would have fascinated Inspector Morse. The final realization of the motivation for the murders is carefully disguised and so is the killer. The conclusion is melodramatic but it works. The skill of the other actors generally is first rate. I like complex, murderous mysteries with plots that play more or less fair with the viewer and that show some restraint. I like John Thaw. That's enough for me to enjoy Into the Blue and watch it more than once. Give it a try. Even with its weaknesses you might enjoy it, too. One of the things I admire about Thaw is that as comfortable an acting life as he could have had after Morse took off, he kept taking roles every year or so that offered different challenges. Some of them, like Monsignor Renard, were, in my opinion, well made. Some, like Goodnight Mr. Tom, were close to being mawkish (again, just opinion), and some, like A Year in Provence, were a delight. Part of the success of the latter, I think, is that it gave Thaw an equally good actress to play off of. Lindsay Duncan was just as effective and charming as Thaw.

Compared to what we get on American tv, it was good. England seems to understand that there can be suspense without having to have calm, cool main characters and it is supposed to be believed that this is intensity.I came into John Thaw's work very indirectly, Inspector Morse would air on ETV as one of the Mystery segments. Of course, he was good.It would take me a while or two to realize that Into The Blue was not the same character, but still the story was fun. Being handed the abandoned baby, the death in the canoe and then the body found on the shore like that all at the beginning, and seeing how they all connected was a good attention-getting story. He got a pretty good ally in Zhora there for a while too. I know nothing about the book, of course, so it was all the first time I had seen the story. I had no problems with it.

Robert Goddard's splendidly crafted novel brought to the small screen. But Goddard must have been heartbroken to see how his work was changed for television production. John Thaw seems to struggle with a role for which he is completely miscast; and with the whole tenor of the plot changed for compression into a two hour format, this must be one of the more disappointing television adaptations of recent times.