Customer Reviews

Alibi

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you were impressed by Sophie Okonedo in 2004's HOTEL RWANDA, in which she played the wife of the beleaguered hotel manager, a role for which she received an Oscar nomination, then do yourself a favor and view ALIBI.

Here, in this movie made for the British telly, Sophie plays Marcey Burgess, whose regular 9 to 5 is as a benefits claims verifier. She also works a part time gig as a waitress for a catering company. In the latter capacity, she's present at the surprise birthday bash thrown by Greg Brentwood (Michael Kitchen) for his wife Linda (Phyllis Logan) at their country house. During the festivities, from her vantage point in the kitchen, she observes Greg's business partner, Martin Shaps (Tom Knight), engage in a bit of surreptitious touchy-feely with Linda. The two are evidently more than just friends. Later, on the way back to the city with the rest of the catering crew, Marcey discovers that she's left her purse back at the Brentwood house. She returns at 2:00 AM to discover the place pretty much deserted except for Greg bent over Martin's dead body. Terrified, Burgess locks herself in a bathroom, and listens through the door as Greg explains the situation; Martin's death was an accident. And Linda had left earlier to spend the night with her sister after a Big Row over the expense of the party; the Brentwoods are financially strapped. When Marcey lets slip that she thinks Linda and Martin were lovers by mentioning the tactile incident, Greg is devastated. Believing Greg's story about his partner's death, and feeling sorry for the former, Burgess emerges from the loo to help plan body disposal.

It would be unseemly to gush too much about ALIBI; there are problems. Marcey's motive for helping Greg out of a dodgy spot was never rationalized to my satisfaction. Sure, she obviously felt sympathy for the guy. But abet winkling away a corpse? Puhleeze! Perhaps she was compensating for having to deny petitioners benefits after listening to their hard luck stories all day/every day at the office. Also, the manner by which Martin's cadaver was eventually disposed wasn't completely thought out by the scriptwriters. Lucky for our two conspirators that Columbo wasn't on the local constabulary.

The real treat is watching Sophie display a range of behavior from fear-induced hysteria to coldly rational problem solving characterized by an intelligent cleverness unexpected in a bureaucratic desk drone. Yup, Okonedo has a wealth of acting talent that makes me want to seek out any other Big Screen role that she's played. Kitchen is good also, but his Brentwood persona is very nearly that of the same actor's Inspector Foyle in the marvelous British miniseries FOYLE'S WAR, albeit a bit more of a whiny Sad Sack.

ALIBI is the perfect film for that dinner before the telly.

This is another captivating job of writing by Paul Abbott ('State of Play', 'Shameless'), and although it may strain our credulity a bit, the strong performances by Michael Kitchen, Sophie Okonedo and Phyllis Logan bring this piece up to a standard not reached by most US films in wide release.

From what I've seen of Abbott's pieces, he can really write and he has heart. Kitchen's role in this is certainly not as commanding as that of his loveable Foyle, - Sophie Okonedo really has the lead in this, and she's amazing. I don't agree with the other reviewer here, and wasn't interested in quibbling mystery/horror fare - it's not a mystery at all, it's a character study. And although the eventual ending might be a tad anticlimactic, every moment getting there, watching actors of this caliber get shuffled about in Abbott's twists and turns, was just delightful. Let's get all of Abbott's work out on dvd here in the States, what do you say?

About the time you think you know what you're watching - a thriller about a young woman who discovers a killer disposing of a body - this quirky story begins taking odd and unexpected turns. After a while, you begin to realize that it's not all "dead" serious. There is dark humor around the edges, and the two protagonists become partners in a cover-up that keeps threatening to come unraveled.

The man (Michael Kitchen) claims the death was accidental, though the body, it turns out, belongs to a man having an affair with his wife. The young woman (Sophie Okonedo), who has no reason to get involved, does anyway - and thereby hangs the tale. Paul Abbott, writer for the series "Cracker," keeps the complications piling up as revelation follows revelation, and each of the characters gets into and out of one predicament after another. Kitchen, parodying all the grimaces and facial contortions of his likeably reticent detective Foyle ("Foyle's War"), gets to muddle on under the influence of a few too many Valium. Cleverly plotted, this British TV drama, is entertainingly implausible in just the way it should be.

This one I rented ,not knowing what to expect. But when I watched it, I really didn't want it to end. This was a very good movie. Very suspensful,and believable. Just when you think somebody is busted ,they squirm away in a very believable manner. It's not all fake and contrived like all these movies these days. Everybody seems so calm and collected in movies, but not this one. And the most shocking thing about this movie is that it was made for TV in the UK. A TV movie ,that in my opinion is better than 90% of crap put out here. Very well worth checking out.

I loved Alibi when I saw it on TV as a 3-part series. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I discover chunks of the story have been edited out !! And unfortunately this does detract from a great storyline. However, maybe you won't notice the missing threads but I think it's very sad that some lovely elements have been lost. Otherwise, what can I say, Michael Kitchen is brilliant

What's not to like? Michael Kitchen, Sophie Okonedo (of Hotel Rwanda) and Phyllis Logan (a favorite Kitchen co-star). This is the dark Kitchen, not the sweet Christopher Foyle so many love. Kitchen is a superb character actor. Here he plays a businessman with a dodgy partner. The partner turns up dead after an expensive dinner party held by Kitchen for his wife on their 19th anniversary. There he meets Sophie's character, a government clerk who moonlights with a catering firm. At the party she notices Kitchen's wife and his partner playing hand-holding games behind the wife's back. Does Kitchen know that his partner is involved with his wife (and, worse still, has been draining money from the company so that he and the wife might plan a life together)? Sophie's character, Marcey, isn't sure if Greg (Kitchen) has killed his partner in reprisal or if the death was (as Greg claims) accidental. She finally believes Greg and together they work to move the body and establish credible alibis. As they try to keep their stories straight, Greg's wife Linda becomes suspicious and investigates. She admits, however, to contributing to the partner/lover's getaway fund, so everyone is guilty to some degree.

The result is a cat-and-mouse, play-like drama (whose creator wrote for the superb Robbie Coltrane series, Cracker). The writing is consistently excellent, as are the performances and the direction. Kitchen is wonderful when he's on the edge and he's definitely on the edge in Alibi.

Just under two hours. Curl up and enjoy.

I gave this review four stars because it was excellent in every respect except the development of the love that was evident between Greg and Marcy by the middle of the movie til the end. When Marcy saw how inlove Greg was with Linda during the party, it seemed that she wished she had a man who would love and honor her that much. THEN when she saw Martin and Linda playing around she realized that it wasn't as perfect as she thought. Still, it was none of her business until she later locked herself in the bathroom and unknowlingly told Greg about the incident.
She felt sorry for Greg when she saw him crying and believed that the death WAS and accident (after all, why would he let her go if he was really a murderer). In the process of helping him, she fell in love. On his part, Greg at first felt deep gratitude for her, but later HE fell in love ( as evidenced by the scene in which he tries to stop her from driving off with Linda where he says "you'll have to kill me first", and the scene where he tells her that she is "special" and touches (how LAME) her arm). I thought the end of the movie was pathetic in that I thought that he should have at LEAST caressed her and said "I'll ring you later". I don't know WHY interracial movies seem to shy away from displaying deep emotional and physical closeness when the relationship involves a white male and black female.

Most entertaining !!
Quality of film/picture not so good , but I still enjoyed it.

I found this a fascinating movie, however, I would have enjoyed it much more if I could have heard or understood the dialogue. I was very disappointed that it had no closed-captions or sub-titles. The spoken lines were very garbled and I could hardly understand a single word. I was able to understand the basic story, but did not get the ending, as I could not make out what the characters were saying. I would love to see a version with sub-titles if there is one available. I think Michael Kitchen is great and it seemed he was superb in portraying his role in this movie.

This is a suspense-horror type program. It is based on the old adage that once we deceive a web we weave. The general theme of the video is the unraveling of the alibi of a murderer.

There are many unrealistic aspect of the program that will irritate detective story fans. For me it was the characters having totally wrong actions. There is this older man who has the skills to start and run a business. There is a young woman who is not very smart and therefore has a job in a a government agency answering simple questions from the public on the telephone.

After the first 15 minutes setting up the situation they behave oppositely. The man becomes stupid and allows the woman to exercise superb crises leadership skills over him. She suddenly becomes an expert on police investigation procedures and accounting. I wondered if she had these skills why she did not have a job as a manager at a commercial company. Another example of the numerous problems that will insult the intelligence of an adult is a police investigation of a car crash. They pronounce it an accident in spite of no skid marks and the transmission being in neutral.

There are many other examples of this unrealistic nature of the video. Again, horror and suspense fans will probably not be bothered by them.