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!

Ellen Raskin wrote an amazing novel that was smart, witty and unpredictable. This movie was a horrible disgrace to the book (as many are.) Only few movies can pull of books (notice the word few) and they are few (few again!) and far between. This is not one of them. Be advised... stay away.

Okay. There were too many characters in the book, too many plot twists and (sadly) too much thinking required on the part of the audience to make a movie of the story as written by Raskin. But why oh why rewrite the whole thing from start to finish? Why make Angela a witchy debutante instead of the goody-two shoes she had been forced to become? Why did Grace Wexler promptly become an interior designer (which is what she wanted to be in the book and instead, she became a restaraunteur while Mr. Hoo became an inventor)? Why throw out Flora (who became a true mother figure to Turtle when it became clear that Grace was the worst mother on record) to pair Turtle with Chris (who was originally partners with Angela's fiance, Dr. Deere)? Why completely subvert the whole premise of Sam Westing's game which was to release Crow from her misguided suffering and free her to live life to the fullest--not to punish her for past misdeeds? The whole story became just another run of the mill kid flick with characters from central casting--no depth, no personality, no nothing.Someone, somewhere, PLEASE, read the book and make us a far better movie than this mess. Yes, the book was tough to read because of the shifting viewpoints, but this mess cut out all the need to think, inquire or analyze. What a disaster!

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.