Curtain: Poirot's Last Case

"Curtain" is the last of the Poirot stories, which means the end of David Suchet's run as Poirot. To me, he will always be the definitive Poirot.

Hastings, who has just lost his wife, is asked by Poirot to meet him at Styles, the site of a previous case thirty years earlier - their first.

Styles is now a guest house. Poirot's health is failing, and he is confined to a wheelchair, due to his arthritis and bad heart. But he still has all his marbles.

He tells Hastings that there is a murderer on the premises, and he needs Hastings to be his eyes and ears.

The people there include the owners, Daisy and Colonel Toby Luttrell, a spinster, Elizabeth Cole, an aristocrat, Sir William Boyd Carrington, a birdwatcher Stephen Norton, a womanizer, Major Allerton, a chemist Dr John Franklin and his wife Barbara, her nurse, Nurse Craven, and Dr. Franklin's lab assistant, who just happens to be Hastings' estranged daughter Judith.

One of these people is a killer. But can Hastings take his attention off his daughter long enough to help Poirot find him or her?

Then the murders start. What does Poirot know? Can he solve his final case before his final curtain?

A dark mystery, but a good one, with Poirot's illness permeating the entire episode. The murder in the end is actually the McGuffin - the big story is that this is Poirot's last case. My big complaint is that Miss Lemon and Superintendent Japp were not brought back for the episode.

I know some people didn't like the turn this series took, and it's true, the seasons with Miss Lemon and Hastings were the best -- they had humor and lightness as well as mystery. But throughout all the seasons, there were always good episodes.

Will be missed.

I've watched from beginning to end the whole Poirot series five times! Yet this final episode just once. Too sad for me to re watch this sad yet incredible finale to my all time favourite tv show more than once. David Suchet it's extraordinary. There will never be a better Poirot. Thank you David.

It has been a fantastic journey. So sorry for it to come to an end.

It's difficult, perhaps nearly impossible, to write an objective, clear- eyed review of Curtain at this point. Those of us who enjoyed Suchet's definitive portrayal are filled with a mix of emotions. So I won't even try to be objective.

The setting was drab and dark, yes, but that, I think, was part of the point. A sumptuous, beautiful setting, like that seen in Five Little Pigs, would've seemed out of place. Styles is a decayed, dying home, a shadow of itself -- and so, it seems, is Poirot.

Closer observers of UK television and movies might recognize members of the cast and comment on their ability to carry off their roles. I can only say that I thought all the actors did, at minimum, competent jobs. Hugh Fraser and Aidan McArdie deserve particular commendation for turning in wonderful performances. It nearly goes without saying that David Suchet proves, yet again, why he is the definitive Poirot.

The expectations for this episode were tremendous. I'd say that the production did an excellent job satisfying Christie purists, an easier task given that she wrote this at the height of her powers. A wonderful way to close out a wonderful series, n'est pas?

"Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" is so dark that its star, David Suchet, insisted it be shot out of sequence so that it would not be the last image of the role that he and fellow cast members would have. Yes, it's that dark and sometimes, disturbing. The great irony is that, in reality, it was shot just before Christmas. But you won't find any bright tinsel or warm carols or peace on earth here. The old-fashioned bright Technicolor colors and tongue-in-cheek humor of the central character, especially with his loyal friend and helpmate, Hastings (Hugh Fraser), so often on display in Suchet's "Poirot" films over the last quarter-century, are nowhere to be found. It soon becomes apparent, as it was in another installment of this last season, "Murder on the Orient Express," that Suchet himself is on a mission to set the record straight for his beloved character, and especially for Christie herself. In "Curtain," nearly all color has been drained from the pictures. It is a kind of "noir" in which shadows are far more important than splashes of color. And so it is with Suchet's "Poirot" here, and the plot that steals him away for all time. The plot finds an older, infirm Poirot wasting away at a dank old estate, Styles, where Poirot and Hastings have solved their first murder many years before. Hastings, recently widowed, has come to look in on his old friend, Poirot, who by now has a bad ticker and is wheelchair-bound. In the mix is Hastings' daughter (Alice Orr-Ewing), a headstrong and sometimes disrespectful lass who may also be in danger, and perhaps even a suspect, when three people die, apparently by suicide. To say much more would ruin the surprise, but it's clear from the get-go that Poirot will have to rely more than ever before on those "little gray cells" _ and on Hastings. To be sure, Fraser has never been better in the latter role, and again, one senses a deliberate decision to make him an extension of Poirot more than ever before. He has to do the leg work, literally. The finale might upset and even shock faithful "Poirot" fans who have become accustomed to the splashy, whimsical productions of past years. But it's a fascination to watch Suchet, who has read every shred of Christie's "Poirot" writings and become a sort of self-made scholar on the subject, use his full classically trained might in doing what he considers righting the ship before he lets the role go. That alone is worth the price of admission. American viewers will have to do some leg work of their own to see this episode. Masterpiece won't be carrying this finale, at least for now, for whatever reason _ it's to be found instead on the Acorn subscription service that features British dramas. Viewers who take that step also will be treated to a 45-minute question-and-answer featurette from when Suchet appeared in Beverly Hills to promote the series' last season, itself a wonderful tool in understanding and enjoying the entire Suchet-Poirot experience and the perfect companion to the PBS "making of" short about the series. Hats off to Suchet for making a brave decision about a role that took up a good portion of his career, and truth be told, his life.