However, even though Garner may seem more at home sporting tank tops than tartan, today’s news that she’s signed on to play Miss Marple in Disney’s reboot of the Agatha Christie series is not the head-scratcher it may seem at first glance. At her best, Garner, who grew up in a strict and devout West Virginia household, has always imbued her performances with a combination of grace and propriety — rare qualities in any contemporary screen presence and ones that seem poised to translate well to bringing the buttoned-up Miss Marple into the new millennium.
This modernized version of Christie’s popular series has shaved a few decades off the amateur detective’s age; in the book and previous film adaptations, she has always been cast as a grandmotherly type (think: Angela Lansbury) who is surprisingly unflappable in the face of gore and man’s capacity for evil. Though Brits like Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter might have been more obvious choices, there is something refreshing about the prospect of watching Garner bring her Southern Belle charisma to the busybody detective.
The other strong influential factor here is the success Warner Bros has had reinventing “Sherlock Holmes” for mainstream moviegoers by casting a familiar American actor like Robert Downey Jr. in the lead. Jude Law (who plays Watson in the franchise) seems born to play the role of Sherlock, but there’s something more compelling about watching Downey stretch and contort himself to fit Holmes’ refined contours. Here’s hoping the same can be said of Garner’s Miss Marple.
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