UK (1979): Drama/Mystery
What happened when best-selling mystery novelist Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days back in 1926? This film "answers" that question with ingenuity and class. Vanessa Redgrave is sublimely cast as Ms. Christie, who vanished from her home not long after her husband (Timothy Dalton) informed her that he was leaving her. Nearly two weeks later, after being the subject of a nationwide search, Christie showed up none the worse for wear at a health spa in Yorkshire, insisting that she could remember nothing of her experiences during her disappearance. According to scriptwriters Kathleen Tynan and Arthur Hopcraft, Christie was located before her return by American reporter Wally Stanton (an uncomfortable-looking Dustin Hoffman), after enjoying a brief romantic fling with the authoress. The journalist decided to keep his discovery a secret. Another plot wrinkle concerns Christie's plan for revenge against her errant husband -- a scheme with all the earmarks of a Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot whodunit.
Agatha represented former TV director Michael Apted's matriculation to "A" pictures with major stars: he proves equal to the challenge, just as he would with his next, even better endeavor, Coal Miner's Daughter (1980). (Warner Bros.) (Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide)
1 nomination
· Costume Design 1979: Shirley Russell