Agatha: Movies about Writing

Agatha (1979) was an imagining of where Agatha Christie went during her eleven missing days.

The film starts with all of the claustrophobia and depression that comes with the end of a relationship. At a signing, the celebrated mystery writer is closed off and in her own head. Agatha (Vanessa Redgrave) is in a horrible state when her husband (Timothy Dalton) leaves her for her his secretary and ends up wrecking her car. All of this is reality except that they did not mention her child who was in the care of her trusted friend and secretary Charlotte Fisher (Fisher isn’t a major character in the film, but she was important to the real Christie so I feel she should be mentioned here).

Wally Stanton, a fictional American reporter played by Dustin Hoffman, immediately dives into the investigation. Meanwhile, Agatha checks herself into a hotel near a health spa where she thought the secretary would be. Weirdly, she uses the mistress’s last name as her alias. The start of this film is not particularly intriguing other than Mr. Christie being tailed by reporters and investigators. Otherwise it is many scenes of people ordering food in restaurants and drinking tea.

About 35 minutes in, you start to see Agatha Christie the writer coming out as she writes down ways to kill people from things she sees around the spa. Also, there’s finally some jazz music. I know it’s England in the 1920s, but c’mon! Stanton finds Agatha at the hotel with a little help from Charlotte whose worries about her friend/boss. He does not give Christie his real name or tell her that he knows who she is. Instead, they enjoy the frivolities and he appreciates that she looks happier than she did at the book signing at the beginning of the film. I just have to add that Redgrave in heels is a full head taller than Hoffman and kudos to the filmmakers for not putting him on a box. Now, Stanton is writing a piece on her without her knowledge, yet he treats her with kindness. Awkward, awkward kindness.

Stanton is clearly attracted to Christie. He is also worried for her. I won’t give away the ending just know it might trigger some people. It’s a tad on the melodramatic side and involves CPR which wasn’t widely in use then. It does give Stanton the opportunity to make feel Christie feel better and that her life is still full of possibilities.

I really do not think this is even close to what happened to Christie during those eleven missing days, but it made an okay story. However, if Agatha Christie had written it, there would have been more poison in those many restaurant scenes.

Oh. And the theme song at the end is awful. Just awful.

Doctor Who (Unicorn & Wasp): Movies about Writing

“There’s a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie . . . Isn’t that a bit weird? Agatha Christie didn’t go around surrounded by murder, not really. I mean, that’s like meeting Charles Dickens and he’s surrounded by ghosts at Christmas.”

Welcome back to another Doctor Who meets an author episode. I love a good Agatha Christie story. Can’t help it. Even if she was too “British” and imperialist in reality, I can separate her from the books. And in this episode we don’t need worry about that as Christie is presented as no-nonsense and disillusioned with the world as it takes place right after her first husband leaves her (look it up, totally happened). What did not happen was Agatha going to a garden party where a man named Professor Plum is killed in a library by an alien being. That’s right - alien! It is Doctor Who after all!

So - remember to grab your sand shoes and brainy specs for David Tenant romp with the Time Lord and silly companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). Let’s round up the suspects!

The cast includes Fenella Wollgar as Christie and Felicity Kendal, Christopher Benjamin, Tom Goodman-Hill, and Oscar nominee Felicity Jones as the list of shady characters who were already on edge because of the rumors of a famed jewel thief known as the Unicorn. While the Doctor and Agatha interview everyone, Donna is very excited to explore the house for clues. Instead, she finds a giant alien wasp.

As more deaths occur, the high class suspects turn to Christie as if her writer’s mind should be able to make all of this just go away. “What would Poirot do?” they ask, insisting that she has to help them. Agatha responds, “I’m just a writer.”

Despite her complete lack of confidence in herself, Christie still find clues and analyzes the people around her with bravery and complete curiosity. She’s depressed due to her crumbling marriage and will not let herself belief she is anything more than a hack writer. I believe this depression to also be true of Christie’s real life counterpart which was why she famously vanished in the midst of her reputation being harmed by her husband’s actions.

She and Donna find a tool kit and realize that the jewel thief the Unicorn is also somewhere in the house, leaving them to wonder the thief and the giant wasp are connected. As any good mystery writer, Christie shows she knows a lot about poisons, 1920s forensics, and the environment around her. The Doctor tells her that the murders mimic one of her books and she knows people so she much become one of her beloved detectives.

I’m not going to give away the end of the mystery, but I will tell you that at the end Agatha Christie is left with no memory of the events at a hotel. And that is where she was when she disappeared for a few days. Right? Right.