Agatha is a 1979 drama thriller film directed by Michael Apted

Michael Apted

Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...

, starring Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...

, Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....

 and Timothy Dalton

Timothy Dalton

Timothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...

, and written by Kathleen Tynan

Kathleen Tynan

Kathleen Jeannette Halton Tynan was a Canadian-British journalist, author and screenwriter. The daughter of Canadian war correspondent Matthew Halton and the sister of television journalist David Halton, she gave up her journalism career in 1967 to marry theatre critic Kenneth Tynan...

. The film focuses on renowned crime writer Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

, offering a theory as to her still unsolved 12-day disappearance in 1926.

Synopsis

When her husband Archie (Dalton) confronts her with his affair and demands a divorce, crime writer Agatha Christie (Redgrave) tells him she fears for her life and promptly vanishes. She signs into a Harrogate

Harrogate

Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...

 hotel under the name of Archie’s lover and, as the country flies into a frenzy of rumour regarding her disappearance, secretly plans a dark revenge against him that can only be averted by Wally Stanton (Hoffman), an ambitious America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

n journalist who falls in love with her...

Reception

Agatha was generally very well received by critics, and maintains an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.