Except for the high standard of acting one usually associates with the British, the handsome landscapes photographed in muted color, and the usual "things aren't what they seem at all" kind of flavor that Christie works over in all of her stories, this SLEEPING MURDER is enough to tranquilize a viewer with its many puzzlements.
It's a clumsy (awkwardly so) script that roams all over the place instead of telling a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end. The story of a young woman having flashbacks to an earlier incident in her life is a perfectly acceptable dramatic device, but the flashbacks add little to the already cluttered nature of the story.
Hardly a faithful version of the story (the earlier TV adaptation with Joan Hickson was much better), it expands for the two hour length and tedium sets in long before the inconclusive ending.
Hardly the way to start watching Agatha Christie if you're a first time viewer of her works. This one has too many flaws--most of them based on the script itself--and GERALDINE McEWAN is only passable as Jane Marple.