Crooked House

A private investigator helps a former flame solve the murder of her wealthy grandfather, who lived in a sprawling estate surrounded by his idiosyncratic family.
In Agatha Christie's most twisted tale, a spy-turned-private-detective is lured by his former lover to catch her grandfather's murderer before Scotland Yard exposes dark family secrets. Anytime you have a mystery, you want the audience to feel like they are part of the process. Where the viewer feels like they could have solved the mystery with the right amount of motivation. That is why, in most mystery movies, you have a character that is unique and even quirky, a person that stands out above others. However in this tale, you have a bland, uninteresting guy making each scene feel long and boring. Max Irons, that plays the detective, is mundane and even dusty, in the role that makes the story drag on like waiting at the emergency room admitting office. The entire movie, except for some scenes near the end, almost became unwatchable as drab performances and ill-timed background music filled the film. A movie mystery from an interesting book was turned into a long walk in a small platoon of trees. This movie did have a number of great actors but it was obvious they were not used to their potential. And with the script going from one suspect to another suspect in a matter of minutes, the viewer only got a small potion of each character background right before changing to another scene with another character actor. For an Agatha Christie mystery, this film was lacking the excitement that was expected.