Into the Blue (1997)

Pretty Good

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

While a bit of Inspector Morse comes through, Thaw pulls it off with a working class persona. We get to follow him through his investigation, and this is the most appealing type of mystery for me. Thaw's Harry Barnett is as tenacious as is his Morse (created by novelist Colin Dexter). Harry is driven mostly by two forces, his attempt to disprove his involvement in a disappearance of a woman and his lifelong relationship with a wealthy former politician, Alan Dysart. But the more questions he asks, the more questions arise about his longtime friend. The connection between the very beginning of the film and its ending works, provides an added twist (there is one right before the end as well), and brought the (film) story full circle, including the exchange of an important gift between two main characters (Barnett and Dysart), bound together through life experiences. You will not be disappointed. As an author of mystery novels and an observer of the two industries (print & film), the media are so different that I often discount the "it did not follow the book" criticisms. Most viewers of the film never have nor ever will read the novel. We writers need to bank the movie checks and move on to the next book.

I saw this on TV about a year ago, and I liked it. That Christmas, I got the book by Robert Goddard, and I couldn't put it down. It is a brilliant book, and I've also got Sight Unseen, which I'm looking forward to starting. It is a fresh change from reading Agatha Christie, who coincidentally is my favourite author.That said, the TV adaptation, while very different to the book, is pretty solid. John Thaw does his best, with a difficult accent, but looks uncomfortable sometimes. I hate criticising Thaw's acting, because he was one of Britain's finest actors. The letdown however, was the script, it was very clunky, and I didn't like some of the plot changes, like Heather getting killed. The ending was very disappointing, as I didn't understand it. They also missed really important things about Alan Dysart, played by Matthew Marsh, like his hidden homosexuality.However, I liked some of the scenes, such as when Harry first discovers that Heather is missing, and the big house being set on fire, after Peter Kingdom (Miles Anderson) was murdered. Most of the acting is good, the music is suitably ominous and Greece looks beautiful. Another thing that bothered me was this, who killed Peter Kingdom, because that wasn't made obvious.In conclusion, it isn't Thaw's best, but you may like it! 7/10. Bethany Cox

Into the Blue is the story of Harry Barnett (John Thaw), an easy-going failure who lives on Rhodes as the caretaker of a house belonging to his good friend, the wealthy Allan Dysart (Matthew Marsh). They've known each other for years. One night Harry meets Heather Mallender (Abigail Cruttenden) on the beach. He takes her back to the house. They spend two or three days together...then she disappears. The Rhodes police think Harry might of killed her. Dysart shows up and gets him out of jail. Harry immediately leaves for London to find out more about Heather. Among the things he finds is that her sister died mysteriously and that Dysart had employed her. It's not long before unpleasant things begin to happen to Harry. Into the Blue is a lumbering mystery, filled with camera shots peeking threateningly from the bushes and around the sides of trees, with the occasional heavy breathing we can hear off camera, with an ominous score filled with musical clichés and with obviously suspicious characters lurking after Harry. It also has several people who are efficiently converted into corpses. That's not a bad thing, especially as we realize all the corpses when they could move on their own had some kind of relationship with Allan Dysart John Thaw, as great a television actor as he was, looks too old for the part. He was 55 and could have passed in bad light for 65. His bed scene with Cruttenden could have been a young woman in bed not just with a man old enough to be her father, but her grandfather. And Thaw not just looks ten years older than Dysart, his employer, friend, protector, rich businessman, former politician and widower, which would be appropriate to the plot, Thaw could pass for 20 years older. This isn't just being picky, it's one of the factors that disrupts the story and turns Into the Blue from a clunky but intriguing mystery into a clunky, intriguing mystery which primarily is a vehicle for Thaw. But, oh, what potential. As old as Thaw looks he is still a hugely engaging, likable, and intelligent actor. The storyline is clever, with a puzzle that would have fascinated Inspector Morse. The final realization of the motivation for the murders is carefully disguised and so is the killer. The conclusion is melodramatic but it works. The skill of the other actors generally is first rate. I like complex, murderous mysteries with plots that play more or less fair with the viewer and that show some restraint. I like John Thaw. That's enough for me to enjoy Into the Blue and watch it more than once. Give it a try. Even with its weaknesses you might enjoy it, too. One of the things I admire about Thaw is that as comfortable an acting life as he could have had after Morse took off, he kept taking roles every year or so that offered different challenges. Some of them, like Monsignor Renard, were, in my opinion, well made. Some, like Goodnight Mr. Tom, were close to being mawkish (again, just opinion), and some, like A Year in Provence, were a delight. Part of the success of the latter, I think, is that it gave Thaw an equally good actress to play off of. Lindsay Duncan was just as effective and charming as Thaw.

Robert Goddard's splendidly crafted novel brought to the small screen. But Goddard must have been heartbroken to see how his work was changed for television production. John Thaw seems to struggle with a role for which he is completely miscast; and with the whole tenor of the plot changed for compression into a two hour format, this must be one of the more disappointing television adaptations of recent times.