MILD SPOILERS
As a fervent fan of the Phryne Fisher TV series, I had such high hopes for this film. And yet, what a disappointment!
The lovely Essie Davis and her costumers did succeed in bringing back Phryne's quintessential modish look. And there is no question that the film locations used were sumptuous.
But-but-but ... the writers completely failed to capture Phryne's elemental joie de vive and essential kindness, swapping them out instead for a kind of callow recklessness coupled with an extremely mean-spirited plot device for bringing the cast together that does not jibe with Phryne's empathetic nature (and was not explained in a way that gets her off the hook for callousness).
The mischaracterization of Phryne really poisoned the show for me, but there were other problems as well. It is Phryne's task to solve a mystery, of course, but woe is me, the storyline looks like the mutant offspring of a threesome amongst Indiana Jones, The Mummy and Romancing the Stone, having inherited the worst aspects of each.
Is there a menacing cave? Yes. A beautiful lost jewel? Yes. A remote desert location involving picturesque sand dunes? Of course. A mysterious child? Uh-huh. Someone who "done somebody wrong"? Absolutely. Something otherworldly and mystical? Why even bother asking?
But do these too-familiar mystery/adventure film tropes weave together to make an interesting story? Definitely not. You will not care about the details of the mystery or its solution, which are both overly complicated and ultimately trivial.
Will you care about the Phryne/Jack subplot, which is really why we all showed up?
Maybe.
But it's hard to care very much when Jack spends the whole film looking as though he ate some bad hummus and needs to find a bathroom. The chemistry between Phryne and Jack, so compelling in the TV series, is almost entirely absent here, and that was the worst blow of all.
I mean, if you can't watch Phryne and Jack melting the TV screen while lusting after one another, what's the point?
In these days of plague when we're all housebound, this movie is a perfectly reasonable way to spend a couple of hours. It may even be diverting, but it is not likely to bring joy to Miss Fisher fans.
As a fervent fan of the Phryne Fisher TV series, I had such high hopes for this film. And yet, what a disappointment!
The lovely Essie Davis and her costumers did succeed in bringing back Phryne's quintessential modish look. And there is no question that the film locations used were sumptuous.
But-but-but ... the writers completely failed to capture Phryne's elemental joie de vive and essential kindness, swapping them out instead for a kind of callow recklessness coupled with an extremely mean-spirited plot device for bringing the cast together that does not jibe with Phryne's empathetic nature (and was not explained in a way that gets her off the hook for callousness).
The mischaracterization of Phryne really poisoned the show for me, but there were other problems as well. It is Phryne's task to solve a mystery, of course, but woe is me, the storyline looks like the mutant offspring of a threesome amongst Indiana Jones, The Mummy and Romancing the Stone, having inherited the worst aspects of each.
Is there a menacing cave? Yes. A beautiful lost jewel? Yes. A remote desert location involving picturesque sand dunes? Of course. A mysterious child? Uh-huh. Someone who "done somebody wrong"? Absolutely. Something otherworldly and mystical? Why even bother asking?
But do these too-familiar mystery/adventure film tropes weave together to make an interesting story? Definitely not. You will not care about the details of the mystery or its solution, which are both overly complicated and ultimately trivial.
Will you care about the Phryne/Jack subplot, which is really why we all showed up?
Maybe.
But it's hard to care very much when Jack spends the whole film looking as though he ate some bad hummus and needs to find a bathroom. The chemistry between Phryne and Jack, so compelling in the TV series, is almost entirely absent here, and that was the worst blow of all.
I mean, if you can't watch Phryne and Jack melting the TV screen while lusting after one another, what's the point?
In these days of plague when we're all housebound, this movie is a perfectly reasonable way to spend a couple of hours. It may even be diverting, but it is not likely to bring joy to Miss Fisher fans.