Marple - Murder is easy - 2008

Well, not the best one but I did like it, a lot, because it had its good moments and good acting performances , plus it had Benedict Cumberbatch in it, which is always a nice touch. My favourite thing of it all, though, is the scene in the train, at the beginning. Perfectly done scene, lovely acting by Julia McKenzie (Marple) and Sylvia Syms (Lavinia Pinkerton). I liked it very much. Marple reading her newspaper, sort of embarrassed by this other passenger who starts talking to her. She replies barely looking up, then Lavinia says "I have to report a murder" and Marple stops reading and takes off her glasses, suddenly interested :-p It's Lavinia that says "murder is easy you see, as long as nobody thinks it is murder. Which they don't. Except for me" then she talks about it in a rather confusing manner, and Marple finds it hard to follow: "you suspect this humble bee to be the murderer?" or something like that :-p and here again I liked a lot the way they both said their "oh nonononono" :-p I don't know why, I find it very funny and lovely. Lavinia explains "I suspect he's going to be the next victim" then starts worrying about being herself in danger. It was  a sort of touching scene when Lavinia said "I will be alright, won't I?" and Marple replied "I do hope so"-"so do I" It was very well done.
Then the story begins. Marple reads that Lavinia died before even leaving the station, let alone talking to Scotland Yard, so she goes to her funeral, pretending to know her (although her pretense is mostly made of untold-facts. She never says she was a friend, she never actually lied). She pays a lot of attention to everybody, then pretends to miss the train in order to stay there (I know a lot of fangirls who would do the same, just to take Benedict's arm :-p ).
Luke Fitzwilliam (Benedict Cumberbatch) is the first to approach her, and being an ex police officer he sees right through her little scheme, so Marple tells him everything. At first he doubts her story, but she says Dr Humbleby might be the next victim and the doctor dies, so he joins her in investigating the matter.
Now to the ending, otherwise it'll be too long to explain. It's all about something that happened 22 years ago (because of this, since it was so long ago, I find exaggerated the scenes when they worry about Honoria's feelings for Hugh; I mean, did they spend 22 years apologising every day? Anyway, as you watch it the first time you don't know it's a 22-year-old story).
Back to what happened: 22 years ago Hugh Horton (David Haig) asked Honoria (Shirley Henderson) to marry him, but she had to look after her mentally retarded brother Leonard, so she refused. When Hugh and Lydia (Anna Chancellor) fell in love and got engaged, it was hard for her. One night Leonard went to him, to ask why she was so downbeat, and Hugh tried to explain about attraction, what Honoria meant (or had meant) for him, and they drank a lot and also talked about sex "I had to convey some basic stuff, he wanted to know what he was missing", says Hugh. So utterly drunk as he was, Leonard went home and "forced himself" on Honoria, he raped her, but she could not tell the police because she didn't want them to lock him away, and yet she had to do something or else he might do it again, so in the morning she pushed him in the river and he drowned. A few weeks later it all started: she asked dr Humbleby about abortion "for a friend", but he wouldn't help, so she went to Florence, a woman who knew everything about herbs and potions. At last, though, she could not go through with it, and hide until the baby was born, then she put it in a basket and let the river take him away. Lydia found it (at the nearest village, or something) and gave it to a childless American couple to take care of. They left for America and all seemed forgotten, until Bridget Conway (Margo Stilley) came here to find out the truth. She is that baby, all grown up and making Luke drool, and she wants to know at all costs. Honoria "knew my sin must never see the light of day" so she tried to prevent Bridget from finding out what happened: she put bad mushrooms in Florence's  stew and stirred (how could she know nobody else would have eaten it? Well, she probably didn't care at all, as long as Florence died too) then she killed the vicar, because when he saw her crying, back then, she had confided in him. He had promised to keep the secret and never speak of it to anyone but "how could I be sure..".
The doctor was obviously one to kill (and not just because he was a hateful man) so Honoria made sure he cut his finger, then she touched the band with her sick cat's puss. Lavinia was too chatty, plus she had spoken of it to her cat (:-/) and Honoria had heard everything, and gone after her and pushed her down the stairs (these were the times when being pushed down the stairs or stabbed once was enough to kill you right away. Not like nowadays movies, where the hero is thrown against walls, stabbed, shot, but can still win in an hand-to-hand combat :-p)
Then we come to Amy who was now pregnant (that hideous James Abbot). Amy knew of her abortion (she thought Honoria had had one) and asked for her help, so Honoria killed her too by replacing her cough cure with hats-dye. Last one was Lydia, who knew who Bridget was because had recognized the birth mark on her neck (sure, but how did she know it was Honoria's baby? I mean, she must have known because she sent Hugh to tell her "Lydia asked me to tell you she's decided to do the right thing" so she knew Honoria was the mother, but in this case, it means Lydia knew more than anybody else, so why wasn't she killed first??)
Honoria infected her with lots of insuline and drowned her in the bathtub. That's all, I think.
A photo of Lydia was the only thing Bridget had to go on. Hugh had felt bad about drinking with Leonard, thinking that because of this he had slipped and died, so he bribed the coroner at the inquest to hide the fact. Mrs Humbleby was Jemma Redgrave, and her daughter Rose could finally love her Jeff, Dr Thomas (James Lance), after her impossible father's death.
The officer in charge was PC Terence Reed (Russell Tovey) who accepted Miss Marple's help : "I feel I just took an exam"- "you passed!" :-p
What else? Bridget said Luke was "gorgeous", and when he asked her "why did you come? what are you looking for?" she replied "not you. yet" :-p
The bit about the book was not clear to me. "Nature's poisons" was missing from the library, and I understand that Amy took it and left it in the church where the new vicar found it and returned it. Now, it had been missing for five years, apparently, so why the girl (was it Rose?) kept noticing its absence now? and why Amy took it five years ago if she was pregnant now? I missed something here,  too many characters and facts and faces I find it hard to remember with my bad memory; it was the first time Amy was pregnant or she wouldn't have asked for Honoria's help, she would have known what to do. So who took the book? Amy had spoken to Marple about how her "mom and uncle Henry" helped people, so Amy knew about that herbs that induce abortion...
I am clearly missing something here...


ITA E' troppo facile