Customer Reviews

P.D. James - Original Sin

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

 

 

This is one of the slicker new adaptations. Many of the scenes are set on the Thames near the London Bridge and the views are beautiful. The acting is quite good. For those 2 reasons, I quite enjoyed the first 3/4, but during the last 1/4, as the mystery is resolved, the plot is simply implausible bordering on ridiculous.

Original Sin is classic British mystery which I just happen to enjoy along with the work of P. D. James in particular. When you hear the famous theme music in the middle of the story, don't worry there's more coming; the DVD includes all three episodes that were aired in March and April of 1997. I'll admit, as others have observed, the story is somewhat involved but I found it held my interest


This particular DVD runs just under 2 and 1/2 hours so plan for a long evening. I had some difficulty playing this DVD on one player which wouldn't pick up any sound; I moved it over to another player and it all worked perfectly. Later I went back to the first player and tried two other discs and they both worked normally; I have no explanation for that.


Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh turns in his customary effective performance joined by Ian Bannen and others in this P. D. James mystery. The story is nicely done for the most part although I'll agree that certain actions at the end of the movie strain credibility to some degree. These are not severe enough to compromise the story or the series in my opinion so I can recommend this DVD.

When Gerard Etienne, the high powered director of a publishing house turns up dead there are lots of suspects who had reasons to want him dead. As one of the employees tells the police inspector, "He wasn't a ray of sunshine." So, whodunit? Was it Frances, the jilted spinster who still loved him, but hated the way he ran her family's business? Was it Miss Blackett, his PA that he treated like a punching bag? Could it be Claudis, his sister who wants the money she'll inherit only if he dies before his upcoming wedding? And, the list of plausible suspects goes on. There are lots of plot twists and turns that keep the viewer guessing up to the end.

The acting is superb, particularly on the part of James Wilby playing Gerard and Carolyn Pickles playing Miss Blackett.

So why didn't I give it five stars? First, it was hard to believe there had ever been a relationship between the gorgeous, sophisticated Gerard and the timid, frumpy Frances. Perhaps this was a matter of casting a sexy, charismatic actor opposite a rather ordinary looking actress, or perhaps Gerard was supposed to have had an ulterior motive for the relaionship. I suspect the latter, but it wasn't made clear by the script.

Second, I felt the murderer was treated with too much sympathy. It's impossbile to explain this without giving away his motive. I don't want to write a spoiler, so I'll leave it at just saying here is a person who killed three people during the course of the movie, and yet we are supposed to sympathize because of things that happened in the past.

Finally, there were certain plot lines that weren't adquately explained/explored. For instance, what was going on in the relationship between Gerard and his father? Why was Gerard so desperate to please his father, and why wasn't his father pleased? How did certain people whose paths had crossed decades before happen to be working at the same publishing house. I can't explain that without giving away the mystery, but I did wonder about it at the end. I'm going to read the book, and hope that all the answers are in there.

Still, it's an intriguing story, involved, but easy to follow. The acting is excellent, the sets are wonderful, the pace is good. You will enjoy it, I am sure.

One of the last P. D. James murder mysteries adapted for television to still star Roy Marsden as Adam Dalgliesh, ORIGINAL SIN is one of the best, helped in large part to its faithfulness to James's original story. The mysteries involve a series of particularly nasty pranks wrought upon the board of directors of the Peverell Press, the (fictional) oldest publishing house in England housed in a mock Venetian palazzo on the Thames. Not long after one of the board (Ian Bannen) calls in Dalgliesh to assist, the memorably rotten executive director of the Press, Gerard Etienne (James Wiltby, at his nastiest and blondest), is discovered gassed to death with a toy snake stuffed in his mouth. The list of suspects includes some of the best actors yet to grace an adaptation of a Dalgliesh murder mystery, including Amanda Root as the last living Peverell heir and Sylvia Syms as a colorful mystery writer with the firm who can play just as cruelly as anyone else. The memorably inventive setting of Innocent House, the mock Venetian palazzo (in the story built Thameside in Wapping during the reign of William IV--obviously, the original Peverells who started the firm must not have had very sensitive noses) is beautifully evoked by the production. The wrapping up of the mystery at the end, as usual in the Dalgliesh television adaptations, leaves too many loose ends only explained fully in the original novel (such as the reasons for the earlier pranks and the origins of Frances Peverell's tunnel nightmares).

First, this is so dated in is hard to imagine they made films like this at one time. Then, the cardinal error of this genre--trying to follow the book too closely. The acting is poor, the scenery cheap and the general flow of the movie (almost a play really) hard to follow. Had I not read the book,it may not have made sense. Buy the book and happily read it. Forget this mess.

I did give some thought as to whether my high opinion of this episode wasn't due entirely to the beautiful setting in a Venetian palace reproduced in England. No, I think not: however, the layout sets the tone for the mystery, the juxtaposition of architecture of high art created to deal with the publication of books written and published for artistic reasons and the crass (as established by the play not me) desire of the young, new managing director to sell the building for the money to be made out of it and to publish only that which will sell, establishes the fundamental conflict out of which emerges murder.Unlike most of the earlier, longer episodes, the plot is hewed to clean lines, it proceeds in clear patterns from conflict, tension, murder, solution. The acting supports the cut-down script made from the customarily complex original book. Commander Dalgleish is at his most humane and understanding. I commend the book as a good read.

Normally, I should not think it necessary to revisit "Original Sin." However, given the less than adequate sound engineering and the soft tones and trailing voice of Roy Marsden, it takes two or three hearing before one can clearly identify all of the dialogue. English subtitles for the non-Brits in the audience would make for a wonderful enhancement to this production. P.D. James writes with such intricacy of plot that she need not make the listener strain to catch the dialogue. Overall I remain a fan, so I make the extra effort.

I've been hard on a number of the P.D. James adaptations, but Original Sin is much better than those I've recently reviewed. For one thing, it's shot on film and the production values are high. The core concept--a publishing firm in a Venetian palace on the Thames in Wapping, with bodies piling up and sickness at the core--is clever and cinematic. The supporting cast is strong, with fine performances by Amanda Root and Ian Bannen, and the laconic Dalgleish is in his element here. London in general and the river in particular functions as a character in its own right and the atmospherics are good. Plus, it's not as long as Hamlet and Lear combined, as some of the adaptations seem to be. Other reviewers are correct: it would be helpful to have subtitles. Still and all, it's worth seeing.

These mystery series movies just seem tom drag on and on.
I think that the director and producer should see the American movie
"Mystic River" which covers and extended mystery
that involves history, but does it in a time economical fashion.
The acting is as usual very good, but these publishing house
murders are just not all that interesting
even with the weanie roast at the end?
If the case were striped to the basics of the investigation
the audience would be asleep by the end?
The two British inspectors can even get up enough energy to have a side romance.

This DVD has no subtitles nor Close Captions. My native language is not English and it's difficult for me to follow it. I would like to know in the future when the DVDs you are offering have no subtitles.