I feel terrible not liking this, but...I didn't really like this. The mystery didn't really gel for me: it had all the hallmarks of a Phryne case (helping someone vulnerable, tangled relationships, danger, great wardrobe) but it didn't feel like a Miss Fisher Murder Mystery. There did seem to be a bit of James Bond. The film opens with a chase rather than a murder, unlike the usual formula, which already put it a little off-kilter. They were clearly aiming for bigger, more exotic, more cinematic, and instead got a bit of a boring mess that for some reason had Phyrne switching between London and the Middle East and oh, have a random fencing scene that lasted probably less time than it took to get her in that outfit. Hugh and Dot, Burt and Cec were mere cameos on par with Aunt Prudence --- and worse, when did Dot get to find out Phryne wasn't dead? The first bit with the faked(?) death.... Phryne is bold and reckless but she isn't cruel, but unfortunately that's just what that plot made her out to be. Or at least, incredibly callous, which is still out of character.
What about her romance with Jack, which left off with a dramatic kiss before Phryne flew off to England, her calling to Jack to come after her? All wasted. Months have passed. She's not in Australia. Jack has had his heart broken. Phryne is, again, strangely cavalier. Most of movie starts them right back at the beginning with Jack being prickly, Phryne being flirty, and what sexual tension managed to carry forward was for me wrecked, again, by the stupid subplot at the start of the movie. Why? Why?! And she got married to some random we never meet to help him out, but again, why? Why even go there, except for some stupid regressive angst? I wanted Power Couple-Phrack. Instead I just felt really sad for Jack, and quite frankly was thinking good riddance to Phryne; if he were my friend, I'd have advised him to forget her.
