Customer Reviews

Place of Execution

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
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This is another in a long line of wonderful productions from the BBC. The story is captivating and slowly draws you in and before you know it, you are anxiously waiting for the next step down the path to the conclusion. As with most British mysteries, there are unexpected twists along the way. The acting is superb on all levels. The attention to minor details in the scenery makes for a rich and rewarding viewing experience. In the end you are left with much to think about and a feeling a warm satisfaction.

I watched A Place of Execution on Masterpiece because I had read and loved the book. For the most part, the movie version was well done. There was good casting and great performances throughout. Unfortunately, the script changed too many key elements from the book -- and these changes detracted rather than added to the story. I don't want to go into specific detail about these changes because I'd have to put in too many spoilers in order to describe them. You'll have to read the book and watch the movie for yourself to decide what you think. I suspect if I hadn't read the book first, I might have like the movie more. If you'd like to read my review of the book, it's under the Kindle version of the book (no spoilers).

When you read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo you will find a reference to Val McDermid, author of the novel upon which this movie is based. Pay attention to that clue because it will tell you something important about the mind-blowing conclusion of superb BBC mystery.

Shifting in time between the present and 1963 when a horrendous crime in a small village transfixed Britain, a television journalist (Juliet Stevenson) confronts the investigating detective whose dogged pursuit of the girl's stepfather propelled him into the national spotlight. Suddenly the detective clams up, after years of celebrity. Sensing a bigger story the reporter plows on. In doing so, she inadvertently stumbles on a powerful and personal truth.

Great acting, intelligent direction, and deft editing make this tale riveting.

Maybe it's because their mysteries often feature satisfyingly salacious conduct, glimpses of frightened victims or mashed-up corpses, or the joys of schadenfreude, but the British create some terrific television stories of plotting and death. I'd add to this unsettling brew restraint in telling the stories, fine acting and writing, some wonderful production values and, quite often, cleverness that can make a person smile.

With Place of Execution, we get it all. (And please note some aspects of the plot are discussed.)

Forty years ago a 13-year-old girl disappears from her small English farming village. Her blood-soaked clothes are found deep in a wet, dark, moldy viaduct. The villagers and her mother, who was a beautiful woman of the village, and her stepfather, the arrogant and wealthy local squire Philip Hawkin (Greg Wise), have no idea what could have happened to her. Despite a thorough investigation led by young Detective Inspector George Bennett (Lee Ingleby), her body was never found. It becomes a story for the tabloids. Someone must pay for the death of innocence. Circumstantial evidence put together by a nearly obsessed Inspector Bennett results in Hawkin swinging from a rope. To the last he calmly insists he did not kill his stepdaughter. The case is nearly forgotten. But what could Hawkin have done with the body?

Forty years pass. We meet television documentary reporter Catherine Heathcote (Juliet Stevenson). She's determined to investigate this 40-year-old crime. She has interviewed the sick, retired George Bennett (Philip Jackson) and knows a great deal about the case. Heathcote is a dogged, relentless reporter who has always sacrificed her family for her career. Now that career is on shaky ground. She's getting older. She has a rebellious 16-year-old daughter. And her assistant is young, good-looking and just as ambitious as Catherine still is.

The fun starts.

The story is told by intercutting the story from the Forties and young Bennett's investigation with Catherine's determination to find out what really happened to the young victim. She isn't helped when she encounters the suspicious silence of the now aging villagers and the sudden decision by Bennett not to help her anymore. All he'll say is "Mistakes were made."

Separately, each story line is engrossing. With the intercut flashbacks we see possibilities that Heathcote can't. With Heathcote, we see her pick apart possibilities. The plotting is clever and well written. The story takes some surprising turns, with a couple of twists I completely missed. The conclusion is satisfying and unsettling.

Juliet Stevenson in my opinion is one of Britain's most skilled, versatile and accomplished actors. It's a pleasure to watch her in action. Greg Wise as the condescending lord of the manor is a suitably unlikable aristo with manners. Hawkin is a tall, handsome squire who rarely talks with the peasants. As he points out with a sniff, talking is not the same as conversation.

Is this movie as good as the book? That's somewhat like asking if the apple I just ate is as good as the banana I ate a month ago. I found this TV movie first-rate.

If you missed this on PBS' contemporary mystery series, it is well worth seeing. Based on the Val MacDermid standalone novel, the story is told in past and present time. A girl goes missing in the 1960's in a remote Derbyshire village; her case is investigated by a young inspector. Her stepfather is found guilty, on circumstantial evidence, and is executed, though the girl's body is never found. In present time a TV reporter, played by Juliet Stevenson, investigates the case, interviewing the original inspector, his detective sergeant and several of the townspeople. The narrative cuts between past and present; the direction is strong, the production values high. There is a loose end or two in the resolution. While not quite a muddle certain things remain unexplained, though the general points are clear. The acting is superb, the pacing far more breathless than that of the original novel (which is still strongly recommended). Mystery buffs will note that while the story feels like 'true crime' its ending is one that Agatha Christie might have written.

The English know how to make a beautiful, artistic film, and this one has great elements of intrigue, suspense, realism, and story surprise. The camera shots, dual time-period parallel stories, aesthetic, and acting are all excellent. You can freeze the frame at just about any point and enjoy a masterful image composition and great lighting...but I look for this, and it's never a distraction. All elements of the movie are so woven together that they create an interesting, transparent medium to paint the characters and reveal the plot, and to struggle with the main characters as they discover the secrets of the past and present.

Another excellent production for Masterpiece Contemporary. I usually stray away from murder mystery type stories, but I couldn't do that five minutes into "Place of Execution". Awesome television.

As an aspiring mystery author, Val McDermid is on my short list of literary heroes. The author best known for the gritty contemporary series "Wire in the Blood" tried her hand at a throwback to the 'English village cosy' structure with "A Place of Execution". Enough time had elapsed since reading the novel that I could enjoy this screen adaptation on its own merits. Changes have been made from McDermid's original story, but the whole still feels familiar and has her stamp on it. Juliet Stevenson is the biggest name in this cast, and she is very good as Catherine Heathcote, a documentary filmmaker investigating a 45-year-old case of a missing teenage girl in rural northern England. The whole cast is a well-oiled ensemble. But the standout for me was Lee Ingleby as young George Bennett, who perfectly captures the Bennett of McDermid's novel--the raw, somewhat awkward new police inspector whose knowledge is still largely theoretical, catching in his very first case as lead detective, the doozy to end all doozies. Ingleby was best-known to me as the tragic young naval officer who commits suicide in "Master & Commander", and is well-nigh unrecognizable in this part from the earlier one. In some angles, he looks fleetingly rather like Tom Cruise. I look forward to seeing more from this versatile young actor.

Another standout efffort from the BBC's partnership with Masterpiece Theatre. The new imprint "Masterpiece Contemporary" is proving to be as much a success as its "Classic" and "Mystery" predecessors. Host David Tennant (Doctor Who) brings great verve and sinister fun to his introductory segments. I highly recommend any productions in this series.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

While watching Place of Execution (2009), I kept thinking that the best mysteries/psychological thrillers/police procedurals I've read or watched adapted to the screen, are British. Starting with Sir Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christi, the tradition of excellent mystery writers continued, just to name a few, with Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Ruth Rendell, Peter Robinson, and the new name for me, Val McDermid. I did not have pleasure of reading any novel by McDermid before watching the 150 minutes PBS production of her novel Place of Execution but I believe, the film is a success. The story that takes place in the past, 1963 and present, never loosens its grip. In the center of the film and the novel, there is a story of the disappearance of 13 years old girl named Alison Carter who one day left her house in the English village of Scarsdale to walk her dog in the nearby moors and never was seen again.It happened in November of 1963. In the present days, a documentary film maker, Catherine Heathcote (Juliet Stevenson) is finishing up the film about the case that shook the nation and the man who was in the center of investigation, highly respected and decorated Police Inspector, George Bennett. It was a very first case for young Bennett and the more he learned about the circumstances of the case, the more he got obsessed with the desire to find what happened to Alice and to bring her murderer to justice. Bennett with the help of a local policeman DS Tommy Clough, was able to find a suspect and to gather the evidence that had led to trial and death sentence. In the beginning, Bennett supported the production of Catherine's film but just as the film was about to be aired, something happened that made Bennett call Catherine and inform her that he wanted to withdrew because the film would make more harm than good and that "mistakes were made". Catherine drives to Scarsdale accompanied by her teenage 13 years old daughter Sasha to try to find out what happened and why George changed his mind so suddenly. While in Scarsdale, she tries to make the locals talk to her and to find out what secrets have been hidden behind the wall of silence.

I was riveted to the screen all the time. I was impressed by acting, the pace of film, the dark atmosphere of the horrific sordid secrets from the past that still cast the shadows on small seemingly peaceful village, by the flashbacks and by the authentic details of the time long passed.

I can't talk much about the plot without giving away the obvious similarity with one of the most famous novel written by the Queen of Mystery, Agatha Christie. Like many viewers, I figured out the guilty party very soon and it was obvious that he was guilty of the terrible crimes but was he guilty of Alison's death? If yes, why was not her body ever found? You will have to stay with this wonderful film to the end to find out along with Catherine Heathcote the truly shocking revelations. The only problem I have with the adaptation, the film shifted the focus from the original story of the Allison' disappearance investigation and the controversy of George Bennet's obsession with the case to Catherine's own problems and demons of her past. As much as I admire Juliet Stevenson's performance and her acting talent, I believe the film should have stayed faithful to the excellent book which I read after watching the film.

"A Place of Execution," (2009), a new television series, is based upon the outstanding, award-winning book of the same name, by Val McDermid, a multiple prize-winning novelist who specializes in British mysteries/psychological thrillers/police procedurals, and is perhaps best-known today for her "Wire in the Blood," series, currently being filmed in the United Kingdom under that title. That series stars Robson Green, who has had a part in producing the TV series at hand, presumably for his employers at Britain's Independent Television stations (ITV). McDermid is considered a leading light in the writing school that has come to be known as tartan noir: and what's that when it's at home, you say? Penned by a Scot, (duh!), unusually dark, violent and bloody; and always lit - a bit--by that droll Scots sense of humor: its exemplars are McDermid, Ian Rankin, and Denise Mina. There is nothing in the least cosy about the village of Scardale, where McDermid has set her story; but some viewers may find themselves reminded of the plot ofAgatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, by that other even more internationally famed mystery-writing Scotswoman, Agatha Christie, who more or less invented the British crime novel,particularly the village cosy.

The series comes to us directly from its American debut on Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and is released directly by PBS. It is one disk, approximately 150 minutes long,with subtitles. It stars the acclaimed Juliet Stevenson (Bend It Like Beckham (Widescreen Edition)) as Catherine Heathcote, TV journalist, looking into a famous 45-year old case: the case that McDermid's source novel centers upon. That novel did also use a flashback and frame structure; and Heathcote, the female journo trying to explicate the case, though she was a print journalist in the book.

The case at the book's core opened in December, 1963, a freezing day in Scardale, isolated rural village in the White Peak, a place of forbidding limestone cliffs in the county Derbyshire, in the greater Manchester area, where the book's author previously worked as a journo, and now lives. Alison Carter, 13-year old extraordinarily beautiful daughter of recently rewed Ruth Hawkin, stepdaughter of Philip Hawkin, the village's new all-powerful squire, has gone out to walk the dog and disappeared. Detective Inspector George Bennett, just promoted and moved to the area, unluckily catches the case. Mind you, the mystery's wrap-up felt clumsy and tacked on, and perhaps showed the relative inexperience of author McDermid then.

In the new TV treatment, Heathcote, as in the earlier book, is making a true crime treatment of the old case, for TV this time. She gets the cooperation of the never-wed, now-retired George. However, he suddenly learns something that shocks him, withdraws from the program, and has a severe heart attack that may leave him brain-damaged.

So we've got Heathcote frantically driving all over the country, trying to figure out what's going on. And location photography is fine, particularly the shots standing in for Scardale. Acting is fine. But the filmmakers seemed to distrust the present-day pulling power of the old case, and so beefed up the contemporary material, so that the old case becomes mere backstory. The film has also eliminated several elements that I considered important to the underlying case; understandably, they must be given some creative leeway. But, in addition, Stevenson is known for her ability to play intense, and the script sure gives her intense. She is a "crap mother," with a difficult relationship with her daughter Sasha, played by Elizabeth Day; and her own novelist mother, played by Liz Moscrop. As the story she's working on disintegrates, she worries about her ability to make the segment, is harassed by her boss Keith (Danny Sapani), while her assistant Nicola (Zoe Telford) tries to steal the show. Meanwhile, she's getting good support from Greg Wise (The Moonstone),playing the easily disliked Philip Hawkin; Lee Ingleby (The Last Legion; George Gently: Series 1) as the young George Bennett, and the inimitable Philip Jackson (Chief Inspector Japp in "Agatha Christie's Poirot" series) as the older policeman. Tony Maudsley does well as the young Tommy Clough, cop on the beat; familiar-faced supporting player Dave Hill gives us an older Tommy, still full of beans. But did I care about Heathcote's relations with her mother and daughter, or her ability to get the segment on TV? No. I cared about the story that had been reduced to backstory, the original case. However,for those not familiar with the underlying novel, I imagine this TV treatment is suspenseful enough.