I wasn't familiar with the actual story, and man, this was just brutal to watch. It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that people with that kind of sociopathy actually exist in the world...
Since the dialogue at the start is based as closely as possible on real transcripts, the plot itself felt pretty grounded and convincing. Where I really lost interest, though, was that segment where Christie manipulates John Hurt into thinking he needs to flee just to avoid prison time. You could try to chalk it up to his lack of wits, but honestly, you can't be quite that dim...
The atmosphere was spot on, though—really captured the right mood.
My one major gripe has to be the costume design. Seriously, could they not find anything better for Attenborough than using some woman's stockings to simulate a bald head...
Steven Newman50 said:The director is Richard Fleischer, and I can't even remember half the stuff he's done; all I really recall is Red Sonja with Schwarzenegger back when he was just a kid. 😬 And sure, there's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with Kirk Douglas. I've got a few more of his films sitting on my IMDb watchlist, including Soylent Green, among others. He even won an Oscar for a documentary back in 1947.
For me, Compulsion and Narrow Margin were actually pretty good.
mistybison said:The movie held my interest, but the characters felt a bit off. With all the lying and playing parts, I really expected Christie to be smarter and actually manage to cover up all those murders.
According to Wikipedia, he had an IQ of 128. Clearly, he was intelligent enough to hide eight murders over the span of a decade. 🤷
mistybison said:Maybe killing a child did something to him? 🤔 Or the trial? 🤔 Or maybe his condition just progressed that way naturally? 🤷
Something probably just broke inside him, seeing as he ended up breaking down in tears during the trial...