NEMESIS/Geraldine McEwan

UK, 2009, 100 minutes, Colour.

Geraldine McEwan, Laura Michelle Kelly, Dan Stevens, Richard E.Grant, Ruth Wilson, George Cole, Ronni Ancona, Adrian Rawlins, Emily Woof, Ann Reid, Amanda Burton, Lee Ingleby.

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

Nemesis is based on an Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple novel, Miss Marple being named by a deceased character as his Menaces. And, making a recording, 1950 setting with flashbacks to 1940 in the Battle of Britain, he bequeathed to her a mission to rectify a past crime. She is sent two tickets for a mystery bus tour and she approaches her novel-writing nephew, who has more than an eye for the ladies, to accompany her and help in the investigation.

Essentially, the story is the bus tour and the various significant locations to which the passengers travel. And, it soon emerges, that they are all connected in some way. They include several couples, and German former Luftwaffe pilot, interned during the war, to nuns…

There is an interesting range of character actors playing these roles. Miss Marple, in the Geraldine McEwan films, is much more benign looking, a kind voice, less sharp than the performances by Joan Hickson (who does seem to be Miss Marple incarnate). Entertainingly good is Richard E.Grant as her nephew. Ruth Wilson strong as the bus driver, Ronni Ancona overdoing the histrionics as a self-important wealthy woman, Dan Stevens as the German pilot, Ann Reid and Amanda Burton as the nuns, George Cole as a former butler.

There are also two murders during the trip. And, as with Miss Marple, she follows the leads, follows the suspicions, confronts people, and unmasks the killer.

This version of Nemesis was not well received, a criticism that there was too much alteration of Agatha Christie’s text, blood sisters turned into religious order sisters (and some culminating shocks!). This version also can was compared very badly with the acclaimed Joan Hickson version of 1987.

But, one of the shocks is to find who the director is: Nicholas Winding Refund, the Danish director best known for his tough drug dramas with Mads Mikkelson, his very strong prison drama, Bronson, making us staff of Tom Hardy, and his international tough films including drive, God Forgives, Neon Demon. One does not associate this writer-director with Agatha Christie!