Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence

100 Movies in 100 Days
Movie 36 Day 36
Agatha Christie's Ordeal By Innocence

I love when a new movie pops up on Amazon Prime. As you are well aware, I'm a very big fan of British Cinema. I'm also a big admirer of the British mini-series as well. Today I stumbled across Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence. What an amazing movie! I've heard of a few of Agatha Christie stories but I've never been a huge follower follower of hers. What drew me to this one was I really enjoyed the cast. It's stars Morven Christie, Anthony Boyle, Christian Cooke, Bill Nighy, Matthew Goode, Luke Treadaway, Anna Chancellor, Crystal Clark, Ella Purnell, and Eleanor Thomlinson.

Ordeal by Innocence is about an adoptive mother who was murdered and one of her adopted children is accused. Before he can be brought to trial, he is murdered in prison. 18 months later the family has joined together, as the father is going to remarry but the truth about mother's death starts to come out. And unexpected stranger shows up claiming to be The Alibi of the son who is accused of killing the mother. From there the story unfolds into a who did it, are they telling the truth, is The Alibi legit, and which among them is capable of murder?

The casting for this movie was absolute perfection. Morven Christie plays the down-on-her-luck maid that knows so many family secrets but never speaks up. She really is the heart and conscience of the entire movie. The way she observed the children and knew all the secrets but could never tell them. Matthew Goode is, once again, terrifying! Matthew Goode plays Phillip, the wheelchair ridden, morphine addict husband of one of the daughters and he is absolutely horrific. He loves to meddle, create problems and cause drama. He's absolutely brilliant at it. More than once I found myself cringing at the sight of him. The best part is, he the only character that couldn't have killed the mother!  He is the one that you were scared of the most just because of his mannerisms. The other standout performance is Anna Chancellor who plays Rachel, the mother. She goes between stern and cold. It's absolutely baffling to watch.

I know Agatha Christie wrote a long time ago but I must say her stories still resonate with people today. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I had no idea who the killer was. I kept guessing and I did not guess the correct answer until the very end. The whole film had this dynamic and sinister feel to it. There was a deeply talented cast that brilliantly portrayed the overwhelming sense of dread. We see the mother is horrible to these adopted children. She was merciless and any one of them could have killed her. The whole time you're just trying to figure out who it might be. The ending is phenomenal! I will not spoil the ending but I literally gasped out loud. Fantastic film that you really should watch if you get a chance. It's only 3 episodes and they're absolutely brilliant.