So poorly cast. Armand Gamache and Jean Guy Beauvoir are Francophones not an Anglos. Armand Gamache is much warmer, refined, and compassionate. And Jean Guy is so much more intense, clipped, analytical and impatient. Agent LaCoste is not a pretty white blond woman, but is from the islands. Olivier is so much more delicate than portrayed. Ruth Zardo is never smiling, but she seems so pleasant in this movie. Whoever cast Myrna obviously never read the book. Agent Nichol is just about the closest character to the book, eye rolls and all. I love this series and had hoped for so much more. You would barely know that this was set in the Eastern Townships of Canada other than the beautiful photography. I would be happy to see the next book made into a movie with better casting or the cast more authentically portrayed. And, by the way...WHERE ARE THE THREE PINES THE VILLAGE IS NAMED FOR?

Firstly, I am generally a fan of Nathaniel Parker, but he was dreadfully miscast as Gamache. The adaptation lost the elements that made the book engaging and delightful. It kept the bones of the story but lost the heart. Ruth was insufficiently rude and blunt, Clara too bland, altogether the adaptation missed the point that these stories are as much or more about the people as about solving the mystery. Truly disappointing.

How can a movie be so terribly miscast? Not one character even remotely resembled the characters in the books. How could Ms. Penny allow such a travesty? Maybe she should influence a movie like J.K. Rowling, who most certainly can give her a lesson on influence casting and bringing characters to life. Why does a movie like that need to look as it was just made for the Lifetime channel? I was truly hoping for getting to know the book characters, however they were just pretty people (except for Ruth Zardo, who was the only one I would say OK) speaking to stiff and to flat. There was no life in any of them. Nathaniel Parker, I really liked in the Inspector Linley series, is just not a French Canadian inspector. This would have (with the right cast) been better as a mini series, where all the quirkiness of the Three Pines Characters could be better flushed out.

If I had never read more of Louise Penney's books than Still Life, it might have been okay. As most of the reviewers have already said, casting was terrible. Not one of the characters (most especially Gamache and Clara) was right for the part, except Susanna Fournier as Agent Nichol. She actually got the part right. Too bad her role was so pathetic. The locale was terrible. The village was too big, the roads too well kept. Three Pines isn't even on a map, and no way would such a large village be as inbred as depicted in the books. My husband and I often joke about roles actors are offered by their agents. Patricia McKenzie's agent must have said "you'll be the only Black in the movie and you'll get to say 3 words, but oh honey, it's a great role". Why even put Myrna in the movie? Nathaniel Parker is about 20 years too young to play Gamache. Also too tall. Kate Hewlett was just very wrong as Clara. My husband kept asking why she was happy so quickly after her best friend was murdered. I could go on, but why torture myself remembering?