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Reviews
Overspel (2011)
Obnoxious Adulterers
Not a bad story. Pretty good weave of marriage problems, big scale crime and corruption, and justice. I was put off by the adulterers who were entirely self-centered and ginned up an obsessive love affair out of what could as well have been a month long one-night stand. I simply could not see what so compelled them about each other. They were not exactly a dynamic duo. Flat, generic love affair at the center of a rather entertaining narrative. Further, they were not sympathetic in their insistence on elevating physical attraction over marriage, and in the woman's case, a child, We did see an increasingly unlikeable side to their rejected spouses, but they did not seem to grow more interesting or insightful with experience, not as individuals, not as a couple. I can recommend the show as it gathers intensity and the plot starts unfolding, but not as a great watch overall.
Miss Marple: A Caribbean Mystery (1989)
Brock Peters Needs to Be Listed
Brock Peters, famously star of L shaped Room and Carmen, is unfortunately not credited in the cast list for his role in this entertaining Agatha Christie mystery, He plays the doctor. As to the movie, it's refreshing with lovely setting and good performances by many we have seen in a variety of other vehicles. I am enjoying Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. She doesn't overdo with quirks and character flourishes, but conveys Marple's keen nose for flushing out a murderer despite that a rather ordinary personality harbors it, all the more to disarm those she watches. Don't expect the flash of the latest movie version of Death on the Nile or so many other contemporary Christie stories marked by dramatc excellence and high production values. This has its own charm though.
Saint X (2023)
Acting not the problem, it's the female lead characters...
Allison Thomas, around whom the story develops, is a stereotype: a moralizing, arrogant princess with little self-insight, in fact nothing much to offer but long blonde hair, and a preppie resumé. The actress does her best playing Allison's vanity and naivité, but it is only when she jumps the shark in seeking attention, trying to prove she's really "special," that her situation evokes sympathy. Similarly, once grown up, sister Claire aka Emily is hard to tolerate though again the actress does what she can to play her self-indulgent, blind and angry obsessiveness. Much of the time she too comes off as a brat. Her traumatic grief should touch us deeply, but instead becomes tiresome. These two white female characters lack authenticity--maybe intentionally--while the lead black male characters seem deeper, their plight more engaging and real. Still, the actresses do play their characters' personality flaws well and the two lead male actors are particularly compelling despite that their assigned characters might be too generically Carribean. This is no White Lotus, but does have at its heart a real mystery to keep us going through flashbacks and a rather drawn out narrative padded by some red herrings and uninteresting sub-plots. The actress playing hard-to-get Sara brings subtlety and nuance to a role that could be very unsympathetic.