{"id":12041,"date":"2013-11-17T09:14:06","date_gmt":"2013-11-16T23:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=12041"},"modified":"2014-08-21T21:13:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T11:13:23","slug":"tv-show-round-up-curtain-hercule-poirots-last-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=12041","title":{"rendered":"TV Show Round Up: Curtain: Hercule Poirot’s Last Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"curtain004\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a two and a half decade marathon but David Suchet has finally achieved his goal.\u00a0 With the airing of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case <\/em>on ITV this week, Suchet has performed in all seventy<\/em> Hercule Poirot novels and short stories as television adaptions.\u00a0 It’s an incredible accomplishment starting back in 1989 with The Adventure of Clapham Cook<\/em>.\u00a0 The show and his performances have survived two different production companies and twenty five years of sufficient ratings to warrant bankrolling that next episode.\u00a0 Other actors have played James Bond and Doctors Who in the last quarter century but there has only been one man to play the part of Hercule Poirot.<\/p>\n

I had a feeling of giddy excitement leading up to watching this final send off.\u00a0 For TFW readers with long memories, you might remember that I rekindled my love for Poirot four years ago<\/a> when I lived in Sydney and had a lot of downtime to myself.\u00a0 Even then, there was the anticipation of Suchet getting to the home stretch of Agatha Christie’s body of work and having only a few episodes left to film.\u00a0 This week, that moment finally arrived.<\/p>\n

\"curtain003\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once the episode began, a lot of that enthusiasm and excitement ebbed away.\u00a0 It only takes a cursory glance at the screenshots I’ve included in this blog to see that Curtain<\/em> is not a particularly cheery send off for our beloved Belgian detective.\u00a0\u00a0Curtain<\/em> sees the reuniting of Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings (still played by Hugh Fraser) at Styles, the manor where the two first met in The Mysterious Affair at Styles<\/em>.\u00a0 Poirot, now wheelchair bound and suffering crippling arthritis, is determined to solve one final murder before he passes.\u00a0 He talks to Hastings of five seemingly unconnected murders, all of which have the presence of X, a man or woman that Poirot believes is the true instigator of the crime.\u00a0 Poirot now believes X to be a resident at Styles and charges Hastings with being his eyes and ears and to ‘look through keyholes’ so they can prevent any further deaths and bring him to justice.<\/p>\n

Curtain<\/em> is a relentlessly dour and gloomy episode where the specter of death hangs heavily over the proceedings.\u00a0 Visually, it is jarring to see the once proud and mighty Poirot, looking gaunt, wheezing and perpetually near death.\u00a0 His loyal friend Hastings is also alone, having recently lost his wife in Argentina to illness and struggling to reconnect with his daughter Judith.\u00a0 Judith spends most of the film being courted by the horrible, sleazy Allerton, a married man who is estranged from his wife.\u00a0 She also argues constantly with Hastings, advocating euthanasia at the choice of the next of kin and blasting the selfishness of the elderly for standing in the way of the young.\u00a0 All in front of Poirot.\u00a0 What a classy lady.<\/p>\n

\"curtain002\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All this takes place in a setting, Styles Manor, which seems to be aging as rapidly as Poirot.\u00a0 The building is run down, covered in cob webs and falling to pieces.\u00a0 Yes, Curtain<\/em> is a gloomy, nihilistic work and there is a nary a splash of vibrancy or colour to be seen on the screen.\u00a0 You know this is a dark and bleak tale when Hastings seriously considers murdering someone.<\/p>\n

The stand off between Poirot and X, his ‘perfect’ murderer, is not a traditional investigation like the other cases in the past.\u00a0 There are no trail of clues.\u00a0 No red herrings.\u00a0 No suspects.\u00a0 Poirot explains that X murders indiscriminately, for the love of killing, and has no conventional motive tying them to the murder victims.\u00a0 Therefore you just watch the events unfold in Curtain<\/em>, as the body count rises, without any real idea as to what is happening.\u00a0 Eventually Poirot himself is claimed and the traditional denouement comes in the form of a letter, four months after his passing.<\/p>\n

\"curtain006\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The way in which Poirot apprehends his perfect murderer is faithful to what happens in the novel.\u00a0 There is some artistic license taken in the television adaptation where Poirot’s faith in Catholicism is amplified, as his mind weighs heavily on what the right thing to do is and whether he can find redemption before he passes.\u00a0 I think this was a great inclusion in the episode as it gives us a very touching parting scene where Poirot ends up seeking forgiveness not from a pastor but from his lifelong friend Hastings.<\/p>\n

“I have always tried to do my best you know.\u00a0 You do believe that Hastings…”<\/em>
\n“Do you think God will forgive me?”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Of course he will.\u00a0 You’re a good man.\u00a0 The best a fellow could know.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“My heart bleeds for you.\u00a0 My poor, lonely Hastings…”<\/em><\/p>\n

It was about then that I got some dust in my eye.<\/p>\n

I doubt I will ever watch Curtain<\/em> again.\u00a0 It’s a sad, teary and sombre farewell between two friends in the twilight of their life.\u00a0 This is an episode where the murder mystery well and truly takes a backseat to the relationship between Poirot and Hastings.\u00a0 It is consistent as ever, right to the very end.\u00a0 Even when he is terminally ill, Poirot is a perfectionist, obsessed with order and examining puzzles with his famous ‘little grey cells’.\u00a0 Hastings is impulsive.\u00a0 Acts on instinct.\u00a0 Quick to make rash decisions.\u00a0 And the two of them remain best of friends to the very end.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I watched it but once was enough.\u00a0 In future, when I feel like revisiting Hercule Poirot, it will be those jaunty earlier adventures.\u00a0 With a young, strapping Captain Hastings.\u00a0 With the hapless gumshoe Chief Inspector Japp.\u00a0 The vivacious and meticulous Miss Lemon.\u00a0 Those are my favourite memories of Poirot and those are the times I most look forward to revisiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a two and a half decade marathon but David Suchet has finally achieved his goal.\u00a0 With the airing of Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case on ITV this week, Suchet has performed in all seventy Hercule Poirot novels and short stories as television adaptions.\u00a0 It’s an incredible accomplishment starting back in 1989 with The Adventure …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[269,1706,1705,267],"class_list":["post-12041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-tv","tag-agatha-christie","tag-captain-hastings","tag-curtain","tag-hercule-poirot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12041"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16264,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12041\/revisions\/16264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}