Product Description: When a writer undertakes to ghost-write the story of a young woman convicted of butchering her family she never dreamed she would wind up trying to prove her subject's innocence. But a deeper secret lies in the imprisoned woman: could she be trying to protect someone or set up another hapless victim for the blame? A suspenseful BBC production.System Requirements:Running Time 180 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 783421339293 Manufacturer No: WG33929
Amazon.com: Taut, psychologically complex, and deliciously suspenseful, Mystery: The Sculptress begins with the discovery of a horrendous crime: a double murder in which the victims were chopped to pieces and re-arranged, so to speak, earning the convicted killer the nickname "the Sculptress." The presumed murderer, Olive Martin (Pauline Quirke), becomes the subject of a true-crime book researched by author Rosalind Leigh (Caroline Goodall), who finds Olive an intelligent and sympathetic (if spooky and scary) figure who may very well be spending her life in prison covering up for the real killer.
Indeed, Olive seems to be going to great lengths to perpetuate perceptions that she is dangerous--but whether that makes her the Sculptress is another question. Meanwhile, Rosalind struggles with recent grief over the death of her young daughter, who was killed in a car accident while Rosalind's drunken ex-husband was at the wheel. Acutely perceptive, Olive wants to help Rosalind liberate her repressed--even murderous--rage, while Rosalind tries to free a reluctant Olive, even reaching out for assistance from the police detective (Christopher Fulford) who quit his job after finding the hacked-to-pieces victims. A fine story with strong hints of a cover-up that might fall apart over Rosalind's pursuit of the truth, strengthened by a couple of fascinating relationships (including possible romantic interest between Rosalind and the former detective). Based on the novel by Minette Walters. --Tom Keogh
A horrendous double murder which required knives, and an obese young murderess...but did she do it? The two bodies had been so thoroughly carved and unjointed that the police later said they had a problem trying to match the correct heads with the torsos. The confessed murderer was the daughter of one of the victims and the sister of the other. The British tabloids called her "The Sculptress." Olive Martin (Pauline Quirke) was found by the police next to the family's kitchen. She was smeared with gore. The first cop on the scene, Hal Hawksley (Christopher Fulford), was so shocked at what he saw he momentarily passed out. "There was so much blood," he said. After securing Olive Martin's confession and seeing her sentenced to life imprisonment, Hawksley was still so shaken he retired from the force and used his savings to purchase a small inn and restaurant on a scenic bit of coast, but far from people. Olive Martin has been in prison now for three years. Olive has never said why she killed her mother and sister and in such a horrendous way.
Rosalind Leigh (Caroline Goodall) is an author who hasn't written much lately. She had been married to a drunk, and their eight-year-old daughter had been killed in a car crash while her drunken husband was driving. Now, divorced, she can't do much of anything. Then her editor tells her she wants Roz to write a book about Olive Martin. Get to know her, get her to talk, see who she is, find out "why." Reluctantly, Roz agrees. Olive Martin turns out to be an obese young woman, not too well educated, defensive, sly, vulnerable, manipulative and, quite possibly, a fine liar. To Roz's surprise, she begins to think that Olive Martin just may be innocent. And if Olive Martin didn't murder the two victims, who on earth could have and why so terribly? To find out, Roz starts talking to those who knew Olive and Olive's family and who remember Olive's father, a wealthy man who died shortly before the murders. She meets Hawksley at his inn and discovers someone is trying to put him out of business so he'll sell his property. She meets the lawyer who defended Olive, perhaps not too well, and who also is the trustee of the money Olive's father left to an unknown child somewhere in Australia. She talks with the neighbors, a man who might have been more than just friends with Olive's father, and the man's wife, a nervous woman who needs to clean. There's a rich property developer who is far too smooth by half. And there is Roz' husband, who seems eager for forgiveness and to be taken back into Roz' bed.
Most of all, there is Olive Martin...this huge, soft woman, with a face that can look so cheerful one moment and so resentful the next, whose mother ignored her and whose attractive, boy-hungry sister made merciless fun of her. We learn that Olive Martin had a secret lover, that she became pregnant and that her sister found out. And now Olive Martin sits in prison, sometimes sullen, sometimes angry, sometimes weary. She steals thick candles from the prison chapel and secretly carves them into figures. The chapel priest doesn't know; he's too busy speculating about Olive in ways that make us uneasy and which Olive uses.
This British TV thriller does a fine job of combining quick-paced and sometimes violent investigation, varied psychological motives and gruesome murder. The weakest element is the two sub-stories. Roz' confrontations with her ex-husband and her flash-backs to her daughter serve only to bring the main story to a halt whenever they occur. They don't add to the story and they add very little to our understanding of Roz. Their purpose seems only to periodically throw up overly dramatic moments for Goodall. The sub-story concerning Hal Hawksley's inn has a tangential relationship with the main story, but not enough to keep us guessing about things. Both threads are marginal. What makes The Sculptress work so well is the character of Olive Martin and the performance of Pauline Quirke in the role. From the moment we first see Olive Martin, keening in her tent-like, blood-drenched flowered dress, her face and hands smeared with blood, we know we're in for something unnerving and unusual. We never really identify with Olive. She seems too sly even when she seems to have been taken advantage of by a number of people. When Roz and Hal Hawksley, now in love, finally separate the threads in this story and identify the murderer, we can't help but feel good when Olive is released and greets Roz with a smile of pure, innocent joy. But does that smile change a bit into something a little too knowing? The drama leaves us satisfied...but I'm not sure I'd offer Olive a job in a butcher shop.
The DVD transfer is first-rate. The program, based on the book by Minette Walters and originally shown in America on PBS' Mystery! series, runs nearly three hours. There are no significant extras. The Sculptress
Loved the book -- liked the movie. The character in the movie wasn't quite as scary to me as in the book. Also the writer character in the movie wasn't as compelling as the book but over all the story is good and there is always a new twist just when you think you have it figured out.
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