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Just perfect...

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Wealthy businessman Rex Fortescue dies in agony, poisoned with taxin. A man disliked by even his nearest and dearest, his death described as a stain gone. Miss Marple steps in when the Fortescue's made Gladys is cruelly killed, Gladys having been in Miss Marple's employ once.Agatha Christie wrote her characters big, and those characters create brilliantly into this adaptation, Gladys, The Crumps, Rex. Everyone performs but I'll highlight those I believe to be the standouts, firstly Fabia Drake, who makes Aunt Effy one of the standout characters, she is superb, the scene where she first encounters Miss Marple is exceptional, she had steel. Peter Davison, a year after he finished Doctor Who, managed better then anyone not to become typecast, here he gets to show the nice guy side we've all seen, but also let rip at the end, a brilliant actor. I also enjoy Selina Caddell's Miss Dove, she is so on point to the character in the book, so straight laced and serious, it's a measured performance.It goes without saying that Hickson performs another masterclass, absent for pretty much the first half, when she does appear she adds massively to it, that's not to say the start flagged without her, far from it.The attention to detail from beginning to end is incredible, lavishly produced, it's all the small touches that make it feel so big, the Gardner at the start, the arrival of Pat and Lance off be aeroplane, this level of detail just isn't there so much these days, presumably cost.There is enough intrigue here for first time mystery fans, and there's more then enough quality for those of us that know this story inside out. Utterly brilliant 10/10

In this story Agatha Christie is stepping in Conan Doyle's footsteps with a mystery that revolves around some colonial strife, or rivalry and vengeance. But at the same time she keeps her naiveté and her nursery simplicity with a whole murder case based on a nursery rhyme, a common and popular nursery rhyme: the repetitiveness becomes the key to the series of murders. And yet there is something ugly in the fact that the criminal looks for the simplest mind in the lot to use that simple mind to his own ends. And this time it is both poignant and disquieting: he uses an orphan who has found some peace of mind and some stability as a maid in a wealthy home. "Sing a Song of Sixpence, A bag full of Rye, Four and twenty Blackbirds, Bak'd in a Pye." We can't avoid thinking of the ten little n*****s, killed one by one and one after the other. Then Miss Marple is just some kind of inner voice that tells us how true and vicious life can be: from vice to evil there is only one little step.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

This is one of my favourites of the Hickson Miss Marple series. Miss Marple is alerted to goings on at Yew Tree Lodge by an ex maid, Gladys but by the time she gets there, there have been three murders already including Gladys herself! The nursery rhyme of the title is largely irrelevant but the story is well plotted and the conclusion satisfying. I don't feel enough is made of the plight of the pathetic Gladys - the book does this so much more effectively and you really end up hating the murderer as a result but apart from that it's pretty good. The cast here is generally excellent. Tom Wilkinson is one of the better accompanying detectives and there are good turns from Stacy Dorning as the airhead second wife, Rachel Bell as the childlike Jennifer and Peter Davison as the charming Lance. Miss Marple finds a kindred spirit in the formidable Miss Henderson of Fabia Drake. My favourite though is Selina Cadell's Mary Dove - exactly as I pictured her in the book! A satisfying mid series entry.

Probably the least interesting of the BBC TV adaptions; and one of the few unavailable on DVD for some reason. The only really entertaining parts come from the formidable elderly actress Fabia Drake, who plays "Miss Henderson". She wanders around making stern condemning comments; the best comes when the ditzy young blonde wife makes a comment about going to the Clubhouse (located on a nearby golf-course as I recall). Miss Henderson gives a loud sniff, and mutters "Clubhouse! .... WHOREhouse!" which always leaves me in stitches. Otherwise its not that memorable; I can't recall if the book itself was very interesting to begin with. Its fun to see Tom Wilkinson in a younger role.