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best movie i've ever seen.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This looks like a low budget, whitewashed version where the producers were unfamiliar with the actual story or characters. Louise Penny has created a memorable group and place in Three Pines, but these actors are all 20 years younger and at least 40 lbs thinner than the characters they play, prettier, and entirely lacking in the qualities that make the characters memorable. Even Three Pines is all wrong - it's supposed to be off the beaten path, on a hard to find, unmarked, unpaved road, glimpsed from the top of a mountain as you descend into the valley below. Particularly awful are Clara, who's far younger than her Louise Penny character and lacks the insight and spontaneity of that character; Myrna, who's supposed to be a retired, 60-something, overweight black woman, who also lacks the compassion & experience that she's written with, and Gamache, who's ten years younger and a less imposing, authoritative or compassionate figure in every way. It's as if the GOP or Fox News were in charge of casting - everyone's got blow dried hair & bleached, capped teeth. Blech!

If I had never read more of Louise Penney's books than Still Life, it might have been okay. As most of the reviewers have already said, casting was terrible. Not one of the characters (most especially Gamache and Clara) was right for the part, except Susanna Fournier as Agent Nichol. She actually got the part right. Too bad her role was so pathetic. The locale was terrible. The village was too big, the roads too well kept. Three Pines isn't even on a map, and no way would such a large village be as inbred as depicted in the books. My husband and I often joke about roles actors are offered by their agents. Patricia McKenzie's agent must have said "you'll be the only Black in the movie and you'll get to say 3 words, but oh honey, it's a great role". Why even put Myrna in the movie? Nathaniel Parker is about 20 years too young to play Gamache. Also too tall. Kate Hewlett was just very wrong as Clara. My husband kept asking why she was happy so quickly after her best friend was murdered. I could go on, but why torture myself remembering?

I love the Gamache books and was so excited for the movie. What a painful disappointment. Nathaniel Parker is definitely not the Gamache I imagined, but the most astounding miscast is Clara. Louise Penny's descriptions are closer to Helena Bonham-Carter than the beautiful blonde actress playing the character. Clara is unkempt, always has crumbs in her hair and paint smudges on her face, has no fashion sense and frizzy hair. By contrast, the Clara in the movie is straight out of a Hollywood red carpet. Don't even get me started on Myrna (who is not only about 100kg off, but never has a chance to say a line and is not even referred to by name).Yet, I feel that (mis)casting is not the complete issue here. Someone needs to tell the screenwriter that book adaptations to screen are not required to use the book dialogue word for word. What works in a book sounds clunky and is difficult to deliver in a movie, no matter how good the actors may be. Adaptations are tough, yes, but the name says it all - take the essence and create your own dialogue! Meryl Streep and Anthony Hopkins couldn't deliver those lines with straight faces!Just for fun, here is my Hollywood, award-winning dream cast, dead or alive:Inspector Gamache - Geoffrey Rush or Jean Reno | Jean-Guy - Jean Dujardin | Clara - Rachel Weisz or Helena Bonham-Carter | Peter - Christian Bale | Gabri - Phillip Seymour Hoffman :-( | Olivier - Jared Leto | Ben - Adrien Brody | Ruth Zardo - Judy Dench | Myrna - Octavia Spencer

Storyline was fine, but there are amazing characters in these books, and their witty repertoire is key to capturing the heart of Three Pines. Instead, they looked like a bunch of crazy (and thinner than expected) extras. There was also lack of character development in Armande's team. Beauvoir and Lacoste were bland background characters.This, and other Louise Penny mysteries could (AND SHOULD) be made into a series. There is enough wit and mystery to carry a single novel through a short season, and allow for the long term characters to grow on you.