Beautifully directed, photographed and costumed, "The Moving Finger" captures both the light, sunny and the dark, grimy side of English village life. The genius of Agatha Christie in this particular story is that it reverses some common gender and geographical stereotypes; it also introduces us to a variety of fun characters, brought to life by a near-perfect cast (John Sessions is downright hilarious at times as the flamboyant Mr. Pye). This series has had no shortage of female beauties so far (Mary Stockley, Amanda Holden, Sienna Guillory, Sophia Myles, etc.), but the angelic Kelly Brook may just top them all. In fact, her casting is like a double-edged sword; it makes certain character motivations very believable, but it also makes certain character choices very un-believable (I'm being vague here to avoid heavy spoilers). The only directorial choice that I think is more of a distraction than a benefit to the film is the intentionally (I assume) very fake "back projection" in the driving scenes, but thankfully these only happen briefly at the start and the end of the film. Otherwise, one of the better entries so far. *** out of 4.
Review of The Moving Finger
