Prime Suspect: The Lost Child (1995)

Pretty Good

Excellent adaptation.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) has been newly promoted to Superintendent. She has a short unknown hospitalization. The first case is an abducted baby. Somebody knocked Susan Covington unconscious and stole her baby Vicki. Chris Hughes becomes the prime suspect but Anne Sutherland provides him with an alibi. The case hits home for Tennison. Mistakes by subordinates puts Anne and her family in danger.The Prime Suspect episodes get shortened from its four hour TV running time in half. It's much more of a TV police procedural and it works better as such. It doesn't feel stretched out. Helen Mirren is great as usual. There is less filler which results in a higher intensity although the final twist is easily foreseen.

This one unravels deftly. You might not know what's coming. If you really watch for details, you might. Again, the realism of this series beats the 'twinkie' world of Law & Order any day. This is not a Dick Wolf Happy Meal - this is the real thing, and at the top of the heap of great actors and other craftsmen involved is Helen Mirren, a wonder if there ever was one.Sometimes you have to step away from the quality stuff and wander over into comic book land so to speak to fully appreciate what you're getting. This part is not a cozy one to snuggle up with; this one will make you think - but it's that good. A child is missing; there's a hunt for the child; that's all you need to know. As it wears on, the narrative 'sort of' tells you what you will finally understand. This is neither a 'whodunnit' nor a straightforward drama nor a police series - it's a bit of all three. And watching Helen Mirren do her stuff is going to be a treat for all your senses.

After having seen The Lost Child for quite a number of times since its release in 1995, and having read the reader's comments (mostly about Jane Tennison's background and Helen Mirren's superb role in it), it strikes me more than ever that no comments are made upon the brilliant role Robert Glenister is playing as Chris Hughes. Even after 10 years it is still one of the most credible ways of portraying the complex personality of a child abuser, carrying the weight of his own past.Watching the episode for the full one and a half hour makes you constantly switch between feelings of love and hate for this guy, in which the hate prevails because of the gravity of his actions. I have seen more brilliant roles of my favorite actor, but this one never fails to make the largest impression possible to me. Helen Mirren would never shine without these wonderful actors next to her. Praise for Robert Glenister!

"Prime Suspect 4" continues the exploits of the inscrutable and dogged seeker of truth and justice, Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison; the first of three miniseries (PS4, PS5, & PS6) with the notable absence of founding writer Lynda La Plante from the credits. Imbued with the same gritty reality of the first three series, the second three series pit Tennison against the forces of evil while coping with middle age, loneliness, indiscretions, a host of personal and professional problems, and resolutions which are sometimes less than ideal. PS4 conjures two stories while PS5 & PS6 are single episodes each which find Tennison seeking justice on behalf of the brutally wronged while waging war against institutions which are willing to sacrifice the interests of her victims for those of a greater good. In other words, to prevail, Tennison must overcome both evil and good forces, something which makes the always gray scenarios of the PS series yet grayer and the Tennison wars as much a matter of principle as of finding murderers. Very good stuff which only gets better from series to series. (B+)