A Triumph, My Dear!: Crooked House | 2017

(image from here)

The Sum of It:
Thank goodness for our #bookstagram community because they did us a SOLID by letting us know that Crooked House was available on iTunes and Amazon in the US ahead of the theatrical release later this year! Since Crooked House was a favorite read for both of us during our #yearofagatha, we both bought the film right away. We've organized our thoughts and feelings below:

*BE ADVISED: many spoilers to follow! You are legit not allowed to read this post unless you've read the book or seen the film!*

THINGS WE LIKED:
Audrey: Guys. This movie. Was. So. GOOD.

Emily: GUYS IT WAS SO GOOD. So good that we and many of our fellow fanatics have tentatively evaluated it as possibly the best Agatha film adaptation...ever. With ZERO offence meant to the iconic David Suchet. From the minute the movie started, I was basically cackling into my magic mirror about how much perfection it was, from the absolutely perfect house (how did they find that place??) for the crooked house, the ideal level of creepiness from Josephine, the costumes, the perfectness of Max Irons as Charles, and the completely pitch perfect level of noir-ish tension throughout. Christina Hendrix's Marilyn Monroe impression as Brenda was legit, and Gillian Anderson totally nailed the drama queen that is Magda. Likely the best of all, though, was Glenn Close being an absolute total smokeshow and completely killing it (pun intended?) as Aunt Edith, the English country lady with an edge. The costuming and sets were all gorgeous, and I really liked the way the adaptation blended the noir-ish detective storyline in with the classic mystery. The family dinner scene was so on point in conveying how toxic this group is together I basically had my hands in the air. Honestly the FEEL of it was just so right, to me, this is up there with Endless Night in terms of the darker plotlines and adaptations, but this one is even more perfect (I KNOW - Audrey is shocked to hear it too).

Audrey: One of the things I loved the most about this movie was the attention to making the family dysfunction seem so real. Throughout the Crooked House book, Sofia is trying to describe to Charles how her family is just not normal. The performances from the actors (along with a truly stellar screenplay #thankyouJulianFellowes) captured this sentiment COMPLETELY and truly made me believe that a twelve-year-old killer could be among this group of people. And don't even get me started about the production design in this film - I was literally gasping with delight as Charles entered each new room in the mansion. I die for that beautiful conservatory space where Roger and Clemency lived (#HEARTEYES).

THINGS WE DID NOT LIKE:
Emily: Damn, Audrey, can you think of anything? I guess one thing that I felt could have been handled a bit better was the very abrupt ending to the film. In the book, there's a bit more of a sum-up, where people are like "yeah...Josephine was sort of terrifying in retrospect..." It was genuinely stunning to see the demise of Edith and Josephine on the screen (perhaps one reason this adaptation is only just now happening), and I guess they wanted to leave you with that impact, but it might have been nice to wrap it up a little more.

Audrey: I was also not really fond of the abrupt ending. Like Emily said, the book ties everything up quite nicely as Sofia and Charles's father (VERY MUCH ALIVE) both admit they had wondered if Josephine could be the killer. Another point I was just a bit confused about was leaving Charles's father out of the film, when he is kind of a central character in the book. I will say they handled the change fairly well in that it didn't seem jarring, however, I did miss the rapport between those two as they attempted to solve the case together in the book.

Overall, we give this film all the stars out of stars and hope that each of you have the chance to see it ASAP! Please comment below and let us know what you thought!

-A. & E.

One Wedding & Two Funerals: Crooked House | 1948

(image from here)

“I've never met a murderer who wasn't vain... It's their vanity that leads to their undoing, nine times out of ten. They may be frightened of being caught, but they can't help strutting and boasting and usually they're sure they've been far too clever to be caught.” 

― Crooked House, p. 87

The Sum of It:
IT'S SO GOOD! K, got that out of the way. This one is narrated by Charles, a tall cutie-patootie who falls in love with this girl Sophia while they're out in Egypt at the end of WWII. Sophia is beautiful and has crisp brown hair and is quite English looking thus he is taken with her, and by the time she's about to head home he decides to pre-propose. She tells him to look her up when he gets back in a few years and she'll be thrilled to see him. She also tells him all about her unique familia, the Leonides clan. Her grandfather, Aristide, is an old Greek who came to England and made his fortune in restaurants and catering businesses. He built his first wife a great big crazy looking house and since her death, basically his whole family lives there in separate apartments within the rambling structure. Sophia jokingly calls it a "crooked house" from the nursery rhyme, and says that they're a crooked family, though not dishonest, just intertwined.

Charles is so pumped when he returns to England to be able to propose to the lovely Sophia who agrees to meet him for dinner the day he gets back, even though her beloved grandfather has just passed away. Charles can't wait to get the wedding bells a'chiming, but Sophia is like hold up fella, turns out grandfather was #MURDERED with poison in his insulin injection and she totally cannot get married til things get sorted. Charles, whose father JUST HAPPENS to be the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, quickly gets involved with the solving of the mystery due to his unique position as friend of the family/relative of crime solver #England. Quickly, he figures out what Sophia meant about the crooked house because everything over there is a bit cray.

Sophia's dad, Philip, is Aristide's son, and writes books on books. He is quiet, calm, and handsome. His wife, Magda, is a DRAMATIC stage actress who's always wanting to use family money to put on doomed productions and just acts out scenes instead of having real conversations with people. Philip's brother, Roger, is charming, clumsy, and in spite of being in charge of the family catering company, not exactly a business man. His wife, Clemency, is a scientist, and is very remote and cool, and has decorated their entire apartment in a minimalist style that seems to freak everyone out #hipster. Aristide's new young wife, Brenda, a former waitress, lives in the house, but the whole fam thinks she's a gold digger who's been busy getting her flirt on with Laurence, the tutor to Aristide's grandchildren, Eustace and Josephine, who are basically described like the kids from the Adams Family except less nice #creepy. Josephine is obsessed with detectives and goes around spying on people all the time and making notes and eating apples. Rounding out the house's occupancy is Aunt Edith, who came once wife #1 died to care for the children, and never left. Charles gets a feeling once he's talked to everyone in the house that literally any of them (except his beloved Sophia, of course) could have knocked off the old man. But which one?? And WHY??

The more Charles gets to know the family, the more he is concerned for their safety. When one of the house's staff is also murdered after someone is taken into custody for the first murder, everything is up in the air again, and the air of mystery gets more sinister. By the time the mystery gets resolved, we learn some sad stuff, and this book gets #DARK. Needless to say, if things work out for Charles and Sophia, they will both know a lot about one another's families before they even get hitched #agoodsign?

The YOA Treatment:
So as we've previously stated, this is one of Agatha's most favorite books of all that she wrote, and she saved the idea for when she'd have time to devote to something this complex and clever. And it for real is ah-mah-zing. The drama and tension in the house is palpable through the page, and the setting is so interesting with the different family apartments, which convey something unique about each group. Also the culprit is #SHOCKING for first time readers, which is why we don't want to include any spoilers in the post! What did you think??

Although the majority of Agatha's stories have made it to the screen at one point or another, somehow this one has not. Which is part of the reason we were SO PUMPED to learn that a film adaptation is planned and will be helmed by none other than genius of British television, Julian Fellowes!! AHHHH!! You guys, it gon' be so good. Anyhow, obviously this got us all fired up about who might be cast in this landmark adaptation, so we decided that the best people to cast the actors would be us. And so, our cast list follows:

(Matt Smith as Charles Hayward & Emilia Clarke as Sophia Leonides)

(Ralph Fiennes as Philip Leonides)

(Kate Winslet as Magda Leonides)

(Maggie Smith as Aunt Edith De Haviland)

(Clive Owen as Roger Leonides)

(Michelle Dockery as Clemency Leonides)

(Nicholas Hoult as Eustace Leonides)

(Bella Ramsey as Josephine Leonides)

(Carey Mulligan as Brenda Leonides)

(Matthew Goode as Laurence Brown)

(Daniel Day Lewis as Sir Arthur Hayward)

(Hugh Bonneville as Chief Inspector Taverner)

(Imelda Staunton as Nannie)

(John Hurt as Aristide Leonides)

*all images from IMDB*

What do you think?? Did you love the book? Were you shocked by the ending? Did you think that this one was particularly complex? Surprisingly dark? Why so? And most importantly, what do you think of our cast list?

Can't wait to hear what you all thought of Crooked House in the comments section!

- A. & E.