The Shadow in the North (2007)

"The Shadow in the North" is one of those films that, even though it is set in another time, has a modern feel to it. It's not quite up to Masterpiece Mystery standards.Former singer Billie Piper, a beautiful young woman and a fine actress, is Sally Lockhart. Sally is an investment adviser, but one of her clients has gone broke thanks to her advice. A ship with the commodities she invested in on board disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Lloyds of London refused to settle her claim.Sally promises the woman that she will get every cent of her money back. She goes to see the ship owner, Axel Bellmann (Jared Harris), and demands that he return the money. He refuses.Sally asks her friends, Fred Garland and Jim Taylor, who are detectives, to investigate for her. Bellmann turns out to be a ruthless arms merchant who has developed a steam gun that is very powerful and can be used against civilians.Someone suggested that this movie is for young viewers and hence, the modern touches. Sally is a very independent and free-thinking woman who looks about as if she belongs in the Victorian era about as much as Miley Cyrus does. The full lips, the lack of deportment, her plain speaking, her boldness - not of the era. Also she's not a big one for wearing hats. Ethnic types abound and seem to be accepted by society. I have to to think all of this was to make it palatable to teenagers. I have no objection to that - it's a well acted if confusing story (magicians and spiritualists play a role in the plot as well), and Sally is indeed all about girl power. I would love to see Billie Piper in something else, maybe something truly modern.

Story by Philip PullmanIt starts off with a white woman marrying a black minister. Maybe I am wrong but I did not believe interracial marriages happened way way back then and all seemed to be kind of on the rich side and all getting along. It seemed phonyBillie Piper is very good in this, she is Sally Lockhart. She is trying to get finances back to a customer she has that lost money through a certain company. Her character works hard to get information to help her clients and is not stopped by threats or physical harm which she receives many times during this movieThere a number of people that seem to live in the same house as her all having different jobs. An old photographer, a detective, and a young photographer named Jim live in the same house has Sally and exchange information. Mr Bellman has an invention that he is pouring his money in to. I don't quite understand what it was it is important to this movie.There are many characters in this story, a spiritualist, a magician and even a beautiful big dog that is Sally's.At times it is very confusing who is who. There is one character named Isabelle that is in love with the magician. Her name is Lyndsey Marshal who is excellent in Garrows' Law.It a good movie with good actors but to me much of the content is unbelievable.

This is not at all what I expect from "Mystery!" Unless intended as farce, in which case it did not succeed either, I found the production far-fetched, and fraught with 21st century sensibilities and laxity.Why did Sally only wear a hat to visit the villain? Was it 1875 when she was investigating, but 1970 or later in the rest of the story? I would have expected her to cover her head whenever she went out, with the exception of emergency.And though very funny (*Was* it an attempt at farce?), during the scene at the Patent Office, I wasn't sure whether the Anglo-Asian clerk was befuddled by Sally because she was a woman or ineptly flirting with her.To quote Sherlock Holmes, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This production eliminated none of the impossible, and so we are left wallowing in disbelief at what we are expected to accept as the "truth" of the story.Not being a reader of Pullman, I cannot comment on how true it is to the book on which it was based. Perhaps Mr. Pullman deserves the blame for my incredulity?

The Sally Lockhart mysteries proved to be a mild disappointment. They are not up to the usual BBC period drama standards - or rather they haven't gotten the period drama treatment. The story relies heavily on a Victorian atmosphere, but you rarely get this in the film adaptations. First of all, Miss Piper, lovely and talented as she is, has the least Victorian beauty imaginable. She is so much AD 2000 that every scene with her in it loses every kind of credibility. One can argue that women were born with different features in olden days - but they pretty much tried to rearrange their facial muscles to imitate the accepted standards of any given era. Where today's actresses try to make their lips appear lush and succulent, every Victorian girl would have subconsciously made every effort to make her mouth appear as a tiny rosebud. The same goes for eyes, hair, posture, gestures. Miss Piper walks straight out of 2007 and makes everything around her 2007.Watching the adaptations, one also gets the impression that the Victorian society was very welcoming to different races and accepted them into the society with open arms. Almost in every single shot featuring the London society, there are Asian, Caribbean and Black people, the latter even boosting rasta hairstyle on one occasion. The golden truth however is that representatives of these races only got into contact with The Society as footmen and servants, and never ever mixed with them.My overall impression was that these adaptations were meant for a young viewer who cares little for the authenticity of a traditional well mounted BBC period piece production. If you want some moderate tension and a fairly watchable entertainment with some good moments, don't hesitate to view these films. I don't regret sitting through them at one go, I only wish I would have been totally overwhelmed.