The Westing Game (1997)
A girl is angry about having to move to the city, but gets involved in a mystery when a rich neighbor is found dead. His will suggests that one of the people in her apartment house is his killer and doles out clues to find the culprit - as well as win $20 million.
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i read the book the other day and was lucky to catch the movie last night i recorded the movie on the dvr and just started watching it and already im sick of it... the book is way better the movie leaves out key people like chris' brother, mr. hoos wife, mrs. baumbach (baba) the movie is just awful and they switched the partners clues around and pair turtel with chris. and chris isn't a bird watcher he lives alone and is a computer programer come on who far from he book did this movie have to get... not done with the movie and already i hate it i hope someone can remake this and keep it to the book cause the book is really good
I just finished reading the Westing Game a couple years ago, and one day when I was searching on the IMDb for a completely different topic, this movie turned up. I have not seen it, but by simply looking at the cast list, I know they did something wrong. How did they louse it up? Let me count the ways.CHARACTERS 1 Got Rid Of Madame Hoo (& Thus The Burglary Plot) 2 Got Rid Of Flora Baumbach (& Thus Turtle's Confidante) 3 Got Rid Of Mister Theodorakis (& Thus Violet Westing Connection) 4 Got Rid Of Theo Theodorakis (& Thus Chris' Caretaker) 5 Got Rid Of Edgar Plum (& Thus Somewhat Humorous Idiotic Lawyer)SUBPLOTS 1 Burglary 2 Stocks 3 Violet Westing & Mister TheodorakisMISCELLANEOUS 1 And So OnWhy Did They Let This Happen To A Great Children's Book? Shame On Whoever Did This!
This movie was really weird. It's like they were trying to mix Beetlejuice and Clue, but it didn't quite work. What was Turtle's problem? Why did she keep on kicking everyone's shins? According to the ad and my friends, I was expecting it to be awesome, but I was disappointed. I've seen much better.
This movie has a "made-for-tv" feel to it with mediocre actors and shallow character development. Being a big fan of the book, I was disappointed that the movie made some major changes to the plot and even eliminated some heirs. The joy of the book are the quarky characters and unexpected twists of the story. The movie comes across as more bland and contrived. I didn't really root for any of the characters to win the game. My advice, skip the film and just read the book by Ellen Raskin which won the Newbery Medal.