They Do It with Mirrors – Marple: They Do It with Mirrors (2009)

Directed by: Andy Wilson | 93 minutes | drama, crime | Actors: Julia McKenzie, Elliot Cowan, Emma Griffiths Malin, Joan Collins, Penelope Wilton, Brian Cox, Jordan Long, Sarah Smart, Maxine Peake, Alexei Sayle, Liam Garrigan, Tom Payne, Nigel Terry, Ian Ogilvy, Alex Jennings

Ruth van Rydock (Joan Collins) expresses to Miss Marple her deep concern about her sister Carrie-Louise. A recent fire, believed to have started, has lost many of Carrie-Louise’s favorite things, and the fact that she’s trying to give former delinquents a new perspective next to and even in her home, Ruth finds too idealistic and far from safe. In addition, Carrie-Louise has a difficult relationship with her biological daughter Mildred (Sarah Smart) who feels deeply disadvantaged by her adopted sister Gina (Emma Griffiths Malin) and shows it in every possible way.

Miss Marple decides to travel to her childhood friend. From the moment she arrives there, all kinds of incomprehensible things take place in the house where everyone is really welcome, from stepsons from previous marriages to an ex with a hidden agenda. Things only get really complicated when the electricity goes out during a theater evening in the living room. In the dark there is tumult and confusion. When the lights come back on, Christian Gulbrandsen, the stepson from Carrie-Louise’s first marriage, is found in his room with a knife in his back. In collaboration with the police, Miss Marple tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of how Gulbrandsen met his end.

If you haven’t read the book or seen any of the earlier film adaptations, this is a rather incomprehensible episode that certainly doesn’t do justice to Agatha Christie’s clever plot. All the story lines are there, all the clues for the thinking viewer too, but it’s like sitting on a chair and getting everything thrown at your head instead of being able to watch the story unfold. Sometimes these are wads, but they can also be larger objects, it certainly doesn’t help to enjoy the story. And despite the much shuffling back and forth with persons, facts and events, the whole is very boring and that is not so good in the case of a detective.

That Julia McKenzie cannot stand in the shadow of her illustrious predecessors Margaret Rutherford and Joan Hickson is usually overcome by the good acting of the people around her, but that is far from the case here. Even the likes of Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton play sloppy, almost disinterested, Joan Collins fails to boost herself to a believable performance and Ian Ogilvy is best off being said. A positive exception is Tom Payne, who throws himself into his role with devotion and does a great job, but this supporting role doesn’t carry enough weight to make this mediocre television film a good one. A very disappointing episode with Julia McKenzie as sleuth Miss Marple who just doesn’t seem shrewd enough to solve even a simple riddle, let alone a complicated murder case. All in all a bland bite.