Paul Evans I struggle a little with this one, as it's one of the novels I really like, it's a book that draws you in, builds the characters and has a really satisfying conclusion.Bobby Attfield hears a dying mans last words while out walking, 'Why didn't they ask Evans?' With the help of friend Frankie Derwent and later Jane Marple's the lead takes them to the family home of the dysfunctional Savages, as they try to uncover the cryptic message and uncover dark secrets.I'm a really easy Agatha Christie fan to please, it doesn't take a huge deal to make me happy, this one fails pretty much, the characters are almost made into caricatures, they're all a little bit over the top and unbelievable. Apart from Miss Marple and Bobby Attfield most of the others are just a bit too much.There are some nice elements to this story, Julia McKenzie drives the story, she literally is too good for the material and script she's given. Georgia Moffett and Sean Biggerstaff both give fairly good performances. It looks really nice, there is some gorgeous filming, the music also is brilliant, it's really melodic.For the first time in a Marple I actually find some of the acting a bit weak, I have always loved both Samantha Bond and Warren Clarke, but both are below par, Hannah Murray is either poor or dreadfully written, I can't distinguish, but Freddie Fox is abysmal, he looks like he's just going through the motions. Some of the dialogue is quite dull and uninteresting.The ending verges on Melodrama, it's like something you'd expect an am dram group to put on, it just didn't work.I've watched it a few times, on occasion I quite like it, but in comparison to others in the series it is the ugly duckling. 5/10

Franklie If you're a true fan of Agatha Christie's novels, then you will be hugely disappointed by this film. Her story, her cleverness, her charm, her characters are all missing. Instead, we get a very flat, blank, and unintelligent slew of characters who are whining or squabbling or snotty or yelling or annoying us with their high-pitched voices. And they even threw Miss Marple in there. Why? It's not a Miss Marple story! It's a story where we love and cheer for the two main characters, but they're not worth it in this version. The biggest shame is that after fiddling so much with her story that it's unrecognizable, they still put Agatha Christie's name on it. So sad. It isn't up to par in any way. If you want to see Agatha's story, go watch the 1980 film. It is practically perfect in its loyalty to the novel and so has the cleverness and charm which keeps us reading and rereading Christie's work. This version should have a disclaimer in the title, mostly out of respect for Christie, that lets us know it's mostly an original story. She shouldn't have to bear the credit and shame of how below par this version is, comparatively at least.

blanche-2 Since it's been so many years since I've read any of the Agatha Christie books - and I read them all - I have to admit I'm enjoying these various mystery series featuring the various Miss Marples. I like Julia McKenzie very much; she is very close to the Miss Marple of the books."Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" is actually not a Miss Marple story, but since the series runs roughshod over the Christie books, why not just throw some of her other characters in as well? The title of the book actually came from a conversation Ms. Christie overheard coming out of a movie theater, and she built a whole story around it. It wasn't this precise story, however.Jane Marple is paying a visit to her friend Marjorie. Marjorie's son recently found a dead body whose last words were the story's title. He's eventually identified as a Mr. Pritchard. Bobby, Marjorie's son, is asked to go to the inquest, but upon arrival, there is no inquest there. Someone has tried to keep him away from the real one.He and his pretty female friend, Frankie, decide to investigate on their own. They find out the man had a connection to the Savage Family, and Frankie crashes her car outside of the family castle and stays there to recover. The Savages are a dysfunctional bunch. The patriarch of the family, not well liked, is recently dead. Frankie is busy nosing around, trying to find out if there is an Evans, when both Miss Marple and Bobbie (disguised as a chauffeur) show up. It's quite a crowd. And Evans isn't who they think.The production values of all these films are lush, with beautiful scenery, music, and '50s clothing. I do wish they set these films in the '30s, where they belong. The acting is very good, and despite the tinkering, this still manages to be an intriguing story, with the exception of the ending. Absolutely ridiculous. Be prepared for a big letdown.

bob the moo One of Miss Marple's friends has a son (Bobby) who was on a Cliffside walk when he discovered a dying man who said the words "why didn't they ask Evans?" before passing away. The official enquiry into the death appears to have done a poor job of investigating anything so Bobby and rather impetuous and attractive friend Frankie take matters into their own hands. Enlisting the help of Miss Marple (whose methods vary greatly from her young charges) they trace the man back as having been at Castle Savage – home to a family as wealthy as they are dysfunctional – where they find the head of the family recently dead with money to be inherited, wills being questioned and relationships strained. It certainly appears something is wrong in connection to the man's death and key to solving it is understanding his final words.It must be boring to read (it is certainly boring to write) but again I will say that it personally doesn't bother me that this is a poor adaptation of the book or that it was never a Miss Marple story or any of these things. I can totally understand why this would be the key thing to those that love the book and wider works of the writer but for me it is about the film, not the book. All I am looking for is the film to work. Things are generally good from the start – the cliff-side opening makes for a good hook – and the tone is generally better than films from the last batch. The title panel is the only thing that appears not to have gotten the memo that we're not doing the "slightly OTT light-entertainment" thing anymore because, beyond the "matinee adventure" style font, the rest of the film is quickly sturdy and enjoyably serious without being overly serious or dry in the way some of the 1980's BBC Marple's could be. So in terms of tone and potential I was sold.The cast mostly add to this well because, although full of recognisable faces none of them overplay and because there isn't one clear "guest star", it prevents you assuming that the star is either the murderer or a red herring. Marple may not be in the original story but McKenzie continues to be the main character. Sadly she also continues to do little for me. It is not that she is "bad" but she doesn't do anything with the role of note and doesn't do anything to make enough of a character to make me be able to decide if she fits the character or not. The main thing she does is a bit (slightly gormless) smile and widening her eyes – an effect that I guess is supposed to make her look friendly and thus get people to talk but to me only has the effect of making her look more like Jim Broadbent than ever. Biggerstaff is not great but Moffett is better and the two together do add a bit of fun to the trio investigating the crime. Bond, Briers, Spall, Williams, Mayall and Dormer all do good work in support matching the tone and making for a good cast.So why is it not that great a film then? Well, simply put the writing gets worse the more you watch. The Marple films have never really been ones where the viewer can be ahead of the mystery particularly easily but this is one of the worst ones for this. Not only does it not make a lot of sense as it goes along but the "solution" is a real crock, with it not making sense and not being clear how Marple was able to make any of the massive leaps she had to make to get there. It is annoying to be engaged in a mystery just to have it suddenly solved out of thin air – deeply unsatisfying. Of course it doesn't help that the poor development of the solution often means that the scenes between the start of the film and then were already feeling a bit pointless and lacking direction – I didn't understand why up till that point but at the end I realised this feeling was because a lot of what had gone before was unconnected to the solution. Suddenly a minor character that was barely on screen became the most important character in the story and even then their part in it didn't really scan. Even the conclusion manages to have one of the people in the room kill one of the murderers in cold blood (not self defence) but yet we get nobody saying anything about what happens to that character as a result – again just adding to the viewer's feeling of being unsatisfied with how it ended.It is a shame because, while I am not taken by McKenzie, I am enjoying the more steady and serious tone that the recent Marple films have had. None of them have been brilliant though – at best they are OK but this one blows the potential of the mystery by making the solution come out of nowhere and be full of so many things that are unsatisfactory, confusing or just make no sense that it spoils a lot of the positive qualities that it had. I'm not too bothered by the writers changing the source material but if they are going to do it then they must make sure that it works – here it most certainly does not.