Syl The Fred and Rosemary West murders on 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Englandcertainly overshadow the Moors Murders that occurred in the early 1960s. To anybody who has read about the case, it's baffling to see a married couple like Fred and Rose (your next door neighbors) involved in some of the country's most heinous crimes to date. Separately Rose and Fred were toxic as poison but together committed crimes against humanity against innocent young women including two of their daughters. The cast does a brilliant job in bringing the characters to life. The Wests are not sympathetic people at all but Dominic West and Monica Dolan did deserve their awards. The series of events is taken by the appropriate adult, Janet Leech, who is assigned to Fred West. Emily Watson plays Janet Leech, a mother and wife to a bipolar man. Watson did a fantastic job. Dominic West did a superb job in bringing one of the most despicable murders to life. Monica Dolan also did a superb job playing Rose West, a candidate for the worst mother ever. Sylvestra Le Touzel plays police officer Hazel Savage MBE who went searching for Heather West. It was Heather's disappearance that launched an investigation. Hazel and Janet Leech were unsung heroines in this case. Hazel was awarded MBE for her services to the police. Hazel was a veteran police officer and perhaps the inspiration.

Robert D. Ruplenas I find I'm the skunk at the garden party with this flick. I found this highly acclaimed docudrama repellent, but not for the reasons one might suspect. It was repellent - as well as incomprehensible - to watch Leach's developing interest and fascination with Fred West. Anyone watching this movie should first do some Googling to find out the details of what Fred and Rosemary West perpetrated. If anyone deserves to be called human monsters, it is this pair. In the light of this knowledge, the script's clear intention - to me anyway - to actually make West into a figure of sympathy is disgusting. Knowing the nature of his deeds, his weeping and the crying about the "baby" (complete with colorful regional pronunciation of the word) are repulsive. It was also interesting to see the British treatment of prisoners in interrogation: allowed to wear their own clothes (no prison uniforms) and pretty much conducted like afternoon tea. As at least one other critic has observed, it is incomprehensible how any morally sentient human being could develop any sympathy with this fiend, as Leach evidently did. As the relationship between Leach and West is at the core of this narrative, and her motivation remains unexplained if not inexplicable, the whole movie does not wash.It was nice of the producers to include the photos of the actual victims in the closing credits. During the movie itself there is minimal emotion at their loss; the burial of their remains is portrayed with as much moral weight as the burial of a pickle jar.

rabbitmoon A lesser production about the West's story would have probably gone for Se7en style moods and grisly gory details. A horror.Fortunately, and far more rewardingly for any engaged viewer, the story focuses on a human relationship story whilst allowing the imagination to piece together events in the background.The dynamics of the relationship are fascinating, more-so because they are true. In the final analysis, that Janet (the appropriate adult) allowed herself to be manipulated and seduced by Fred West is a chilling illustration of the true nature of what we are dealing with here. The thought that this same psychological treatment would have led countless others into his trust, and ultimately their deaths, is far more terrifying in its cold reality than any conscious attempts at "horror" could have been.Janet doesn't only represent the victims but also the vast majority of normal human beings - vulnerable to emotional needs, a willing and optimistic mindset, and the inability to always separate imagination from reality.A very fascinating angle on a difficult subject.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Given popular culture's fixation with crime and particularly topics such as serial murderers, it was an inevitability that eventually a film (a TV movie, at least) would be made about the crimes of Fred and Rose West. It was even more inevitable that there would be an out cry that it would glamorize and thus cheapen the real life murders. But, the producers of Appropriate Adult took a novel approach and chose to focus not on the actual murders themselves, but, as the title suggests, the AA that it was felt needed to sit in during Fred West's police interviews on account of his apparent 'learning difficulties.' That woman was Janet Leach, played here by Emily Watson, who went on to sell her story to the tabloids but who also appeared to suffer a certifiable breakdown, after seemingly forming a bond with West, falling under his dark spell. In doing so, it casts an interesting light on the case, bringing up facts that I certainly didn't know before seeing it (i.e. Rose West being a prostitute) and serving to make an unpleasant tale even more unsavoury.As West, Coronation Street star Craig Charles had been in the running to play the role, but it appears to have gone to The Wire star Dominic West. I've never watched that show, so I can't compare him with what he's probably known best for, but he manages to bring West to life with an eerie darkness all of his own, interspersing his usual barrage of matter of fact recollections of his heinous crimes with the occasional emotional breakdown that reveals a vaguely human side to such a monster. It's his everyman appearance in general that makes him such an unnerving character. In support, Watson also seems like an eerily credible person, a woman desperately trying to stay professional in spite of hearing first hand accounts of crimes she can't accept are humanly possible, while still forming a bond with the perpetrator of these sick crimes.A drama about West was always going to be in the pipe line for one day, and this is a sensitively handled and none voyeuristic handling, that is relevant, enlightening and of course, very disturbing. ****