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agatha christie
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Stream It Or Skip It: 'Agatha Christie's Murder Is Easy' On BritBox, Where A Man Investigates Murders In A British Village
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'Agatha Christie's Murder Is Easy' Exclusive Clip: A Body Is Found In BritBox's New Adaptation Of Agatha Christie's Novel
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Stream It Or Skip It: 'Death And Other Details' On Hulu, Where An Old Detective And A Young Woman Solve A Murder On A Cruise Ship
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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘A Haunting in Venice’ on Hulu, Kenneth Branagh's Creepy Riff on Agatha Christie
John Malkovich is doing something very different with Hercule Poirot in the latest Agatha Christie TV adaptation, The ABC Murders, and he knows it. As Malkovich told Decider’s Joel Keller, he didn’t bring any of Poirot’s fussiness to his performance. He ditched the thick Belgian accent and even refused to sport the trademark mustache. He also didn’t really read any Christie to prepare. So the performance is the anti-Poirot Poirot, and in Malkovich’s own words, “Of course some people are going to not like that. And perfectly, understandably so.”
I regret to inform Mr. Malkovich that I am one of those people. I really couldn’t stand The ABC Murders. The show is a dour interpretation of Christie’s novel, full of death, decay, and a sense of paranoia. But not in a fun murder mystery kind of way. You know, the drunk in an evening dress solving a murder at a party kind.
Still what makes The ABC Murders close to unwatchable for me is Malkovich’s performance. I found it to be utterly befuddling. It’s not just that Malkovich doesn’t have any of Poirot’s famous tics, but he also mumbles and stumbles his way through the story, barely holding on to whatever accent he thinks he’s doing. There’s something exhausting about his Poirot, who seems more interested in his own mid-life crisis than the thrill of solving a murder mystery. In a way, Malkovich — who is a very good actor capable of delivering a great performance — winds up murdering Poirot in The ABC Murders.
Hercule Poirot first appeared in print in 1920, and his “death” was marked by an obituary in The New York Times. He appears in 33 books, over 50 short stories, and has seeped into the public consciousness thanks to countless film and TV adaptations. David Suchet’s version of the character might be the most popular, at least since Suchet played the part on TV for almost 25 years. Albert Finney received an Oscar nomination for his performance in 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, and Sir Kenneth Branagh is currently working on a big screen follow up to his lavish 3D version of that same story.
These Poirots all hew closer to the character that Christie imagined. He’s meticulous, obsessive, and more than a little egotistical. Malkovich’s Poirot doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Christie, however. Something he seemed proud of when he talked to Keller. That’s fine, I suppose, but then why go to the bother of adapting Christie in the first place? Create a new detective and put him at the center of a new story. The ABC Murders seems to just be cashing in on the name-recognition of Christie, without bothering with her actual tone, voice, or writing.
Perhaps the greatest mystery of all time might be trying to unravel why anyone thought casting Malkovich as Hercule Poirot was a good idea. It’s one of the worst bits of miscasting I can think of, and yet, it feels perfectly normal for 2019. It’s off-kilter, maddening, and full of misplaced vanity.
