Death in Holy Orders

Rating:
Summary: Excellent acting and a great murder mystery
Review: Attention Roy Marsden fans, it's a simple fact that you're going to find that the change of actors (to Martin Shaw) jarring -- obviously it just won't be the same Dalgliesh you've gotten used to over the years.

In Death in Holy Orders, we find Commander Adam Dalgliesh returning to an isolated, windswept, religious college to informally look into the death of a young ordinand -- and to visit a place where he spent many happy summers as a youth. As in all PD James novels, the story is full of interesting, richly developed characters. Bodies start piling up in short order, and everybody seems to have a motive to murder.

The leading actor, as mentioned above, is Martin Shaw in the role of Adam Dalgliesh. Shaw is not well-known to US TV audiences (US "Professionals" fans notwithstanding). The only previous appearances in the US are a historical mini-series on Cecil Rhodes and another on Scott (the polar explorer). But in the UK, Shaw is a very well known TV leading man. Recent shows have been the popular A&E hospital drama and 'Judge John Deed', a legal drama. He rose to fame in the 1970s in a popular, and now cult popular, crime show called 'The Professionals'. An important sub-theme in 'Death in Holy Orders' is Dalgliesh's nostalgic return to a place where he spent many happy summers as a teenager and his consequent introspection regarding his life. PD James' Dalgliesh is an intensely private, contemplative and creative person who's experienced deep personal loss and responded by burying himself in work. Indeed his response (in the book) to discovering an attraction for Emma Lavenham is "Oh God, not this complication. Not now. Not ever." Shaw does an excellent job of expressing this aspect of his character and Dalgliesh, the poet, in general. Shaw's performance is less compelling when he is playing Dalgliesh, the detective, and is supposed to convey a sense of quiet cerebral intensity. Shaw just doesn't quite pull this off, IMO. Anyhow personally I think this is small quibble and should be considered in light of the rest of his stellar acting in other scenes.

The supporting cast is excellent. Janie Dee plays Emma Lavenham. Dee is an accomplished stage actress in the UK and US, but has done little TV. In fact, I think this is her first big TV role. Dee wonderfully captures the character as developed in PD James' book. The age-difference between Dee and Shaw is some 20 (or so) years (similar to the book). Dee's job is to successfully portray a woman who is drawn on an emotional level to a much older man -- without much encouragement. Dee does this very well and her character's attraction to his character are believable. Another excellent performance is by Jesse Spencer in the role of Raphael -- abandoned as a baby at the college and one of the prime suspects. Spencer nicely captures the conflicting emotions ones would expect of someone abandoned by his mother and raised all his life in a small isolated religious college and his slow unraveling is fun to watch.

If you get the movie, I strongly suggest that you also read (or re-read) the book. The book is an excellent page-turner (even if you know what's going to happen). In particular, I suggest reading the book in order to enjoy PD James final aquatic culmination. PD James' scene in the book is definitely more gripping. Of course, they couldn't have filmed it her way; one of the actors would have drowned for sure.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable dramatization of PD James' "Death in Holy Orders" and must see for PD James fans -- as long as you can get over the leading actor change.

Rating:
Summary: Awful!
Review: Bring back Roy Marsden! This guy was terrible. What a shame to ruin a good story with a very bad actor!

Rating:
Summary: "I'm just a wretched and unrepentant sinner."
Review: Commander Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard receives an anonymous note advising that he should investigate a death that occurred at St Anshelms College. The death of Ronald Treeves was ruled accidental, so Dalgliesh travels to St Anshelms to make a few inquiries and put any questions to rest. The trip to St Anshelms is nostalgic for Dalgliesh as he spent many years of his life there.

When Dalgleish arrives, the atmosphere at St Anshelms is somewhat strained. Archdeacon Crampton's personal mission is to ensure the Church of England closes St Anshelms as he considers the college's practices archaic and elitist. Naturally the people who live and work at St Anshelms resent the impending closure, and the fact that years earlier Crampton was suspected of murdering his wife, doesn't exactly help matters. At first, Dalgliesh's investigations bear little fruit, but it seems that his presence has stirred the murky depths of a murderer's mind. The body count mounts and Dalgliesh is hot on the trail of a killer.

Martin Shaw plays Dalgliesh, replacing long-term actor Roy Marsden. I wasn't quite sure how I'd feel about the change in the lead character, but Shaw played the character well and in his own fashion. Somehow it worked, and that may be due to the fact that Shaw didn't seem to be a replacement for Marsden--rather Shaw seemed to be an entirely different character. The plot was extremely interesting, and the setting brings some bigger issues to the surface--this makes for a meatier mystery. Is St Anshelms the hot bed of corruption that Crampton claims, or is it an institution to be cherished? And lonely Commander Dalgliesh may finally find a love interest. Fans of British mysteries should enjoy the 180 minutes of entertainment the DVD offers. Extra features include actor bios, and a short documentary about P.D.James--displacedhuman


Rating:
Summary: an American fan of Martin Shaw
Review: For the reviewer who believes that no one in America has heard of Martin Shaw, guess again. For me, his best role is Chauvelin in the newest recreation of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1995). As a villian he was complicated, 'soulful' but murderous. Too bad the lead character in that production was a disappointment or it might have done better here. "Rhodes" was well acted but a one-time watch and much of Shaw's other work is not available here. So as a fan of both Shaw and Marsden's Dalgliesh, I was interested to see Shaw in this role. He was excellent. As another reviewer said he is a brand new character, but a bit more tragic (and complicated, as always). Marsden, I'm sure, is tired of twenty years in the role and new interpretations of Poirot or Holmes have only led to better and better characters. Shaw lends another layer to what has been a rather wooden character up to now.

That said, you have to be a fan of PD James to like this one. There are too many characters, each of whom has secrets, crimes and mayhem in their past. I have never been in a 'closed society' (as James might call it) where there have been so many demented people outside of an asylum. The plot is like Shakespeare - you need a copy of the book next to you in order to follow it. And the next day I find myself saying 'Wait a minute, why did he do that? What was her motivation for that?' PD James does not bother about all the strings. Much as she denigrates the old 'butler in the library' settings, Agatha Christie is still the queen of murder mysteries. When you get to the end of one of Christie's stories you say, 'How did I miss that clue?', not 'Wait a minute'.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent in almost every way
Review: I am a relative newcomer to the world of Adam Dalgliesh, both in print and in film. I had read both this novel and a predecessor, 'A Certain Justice,' and came across this film as it was presented over a two-night episode of PBS 'Mystery!.'
I am, as it bears mentioning, completely unfamiliar with the work of Roy Marsden in this role, and so approach this presentation with relatively fresh eyes. (Although, I doubt I would have enjoyed his performance having been completely captivated by 'The Sandbaggers.')
Shaw's presentation of Dalgliesh is understated, and most definitely contemplative. Those looking for melodrama will be deeply disappointed.
The film retains all the essential elements of the novel, and most of the subtext usually lost in novel to film translations is pleasantly preserved in this rendition. Certain motivations of the secondary characters are truncated, but this is a necessary convention of the form, and is not done capriciously or in disservice to the overall narrative.
My only complaint is the presentation of the actual physical church building. Given its importance in the overall story, more effort could have been made to create a more imposing, reverant, and solemn atmosphere of this crucial location. As this is but a minor quibble, I hardily recommend this production, and give it four stars.

Rating:
Summary: Multiple Murders, Endless Secrets, and a New Dalgliesh.
Review: In "Death in Holy Orders", Commander Adam Dalgliesh (Martin Shaw) of New Scotland Yard returns to the small theological college of Saint Anselm, which he knows from childhood, on the request of a man whose son mysteriously died while studying for the priesthood there. Ronald Treeves' death has come just as the monastery must defend itself from closure by Archdeacon Matthew Crampton (Clive Wood), who feels that its valuable artwork would be better placed elsewhere and disdains the the elitist, old-fashioned ideology of the small college. It proves difficult to glean the details of the dead man's life from among the dirty little secrets that the community of Saint Anselm has collected over the years. But there is little time to lose, as a cloud of death has descended upon the place. Murders begin to pile up.

Modern British murder mysteries seem never to be about serial killers or murder for profit. They are astute enough to realize that murderers who don't know their victims well make for anorexic, underwritten narratives. So they write sordid mysteries, overloaded with character behavior, where every person involved is nursing some dread and improbable secret involving sex, drugs, death, adultery, illegitimacy, and/or homosexuality. "Death in Holy Orders" throws religion, madness, and ancient history into the mix. Yet British murder mysteries are known for their class -even, ironically, for being highbrow. They pull it off by casting excellent character actors, allocating a huge amount of time to character development in the form of dialogue, and giving the suspects at least as much attention as the detective. Adam Dalgliesh mysteries follow that formula. They owe their success to superb ensemble casts that play every variety of villain and flawed character, in particular, to perfection. Highbrow? Not at all. This is sordid, vulgar stuff. But done the way on the British do it, it's stylish.

Actor Martin Shaw makes his debut as Adam Dalgliesh in "Death in Holy Orders". Roy Marsden owned the role from 1983-1998, through 10 adaptations of P.D. James' books. Which actor one prefers is a matter of personal taste, but I always found Marsden's Dalgliesh to be neurotic and distastefully self-righteous. Martin Shaw's Dalgliesh is probably those things, but his interpretation is notably soulful. He still has a kind of righteous detachment from those around him -for which one character takes him to task, but I find him more appealing. Director Jonny Campbell has given "Death in Holy Orders" a persistently ominous tone, and doesn't hesitate to use the ecclesiastical environment to heighten the sense of doom. There are no fewer than 15 suspects in the investigation. Add the multiple victims, and this is quite a large cast. The performances are all excellent, but spare no melodrama. Many of these characters are overwrought, perhaps even moreso than is normal for a British mystery. But "Death in Holy Orders" always entertains. Fans of Brit murders and detectives will surely enjoy it.

The DVD: You have to wait for the Main Menu to appear, which it does after one ad and a short preview. You have the option of watching the film in 2 parts, as it was shown on television. There is a 30-minute featurette entitled "Writers and Places". It looks as if it was made at least 25 years ago under the title "P.D. James on the Dangerous Edge". In this little documentary, author P.D. James talks about the vital role that location plays in detective writing. Using several of her own novels as examples, she describes how her stories evolve from their settings and how place is used to emphasize the horror of the crime. It's not a bad documentary, but it is a little repetitive. It doesn't take a half an hour to get the point. "Cast/Author Biographies" are text bios and include essential filmographies.