A still from the trailer. (image courtesy: youtube,
Mold: Branagh, Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Don French, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Emma McKay, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders and Letitia Wright
the director: Kenneth Branaghoo
Rating: Three stars (out of 5)
Had the Covid-19 outbreak not affected film production and distribution schedules around the world, Kenneth Branagh’s Murder to the Orient Express (2017) would have hit us almost two years ago. While we waited for Death on the Nile to be overtaken by a series of release postponements, the director made the beautiful, black-and-white, semi-autobiographical film that has since garnered several Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay.
Two key technicians who worked with Branagh on Belfast, cinematographer Haris Zamberlukos and production designer Jim Clay, both regular collaborators of the director, were also part of the “Nile” crew. The two, with one visualizing and orchestrating physical spaces on a screen, the other capturing them on camera, their inputs being visually spectacular and grandly felt on Mount Death on the Nile, as they did in Belfast. did.
Branagh, both actors playing Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot and the director reimagining the murder mystery Agatha Christie wrote more than eight decades ago, is the lead tone and spirit of “The Orient Express”. makes a significant departure from and places the master detective and the work he does in an apparently more intense, secluded area death of the nile, In a scene or two, the detective also chokes and cries.
The film isn’t any worse for this ‘reconstruction’ of Poirot, unless one looks at it entirely from the perspective of those who donned the Johnny action-hero cloaks in “Orient Express” Got the shine Branagh’s “Nile” is the second big-screen version of the story (the first, released in 1978, was led by Peter Ustinov).
Ustinov’s Hercule Poirot was a cheerful, sensible detective who always liked the idea of being one step ahead of everyone around him. Branagh is a more contemplative, calmer, even self-absorbed, man content to follow his instincts as he cracks down on a new case and his surroundings aboard Karnak down the Nile. Works.
death of the nile It takes its own sweet time to spring murder upon us, while resting on expository details packed into Michael Green’s screenplay. Once Titanic’s flashpoint is out of the way, the film picks up some momentum and shifts gears occasionally and abandons its slow and steady rhythm to embrace the decidedly faster, more urgent clip. gives. If not suspense, the intrigue grows progressively as Poirot digs deeper into the clues he finds as ferrets for the truth.
Rich heiress Lynette Ridgeway-Doyle (Gal Gadot), who has invited her friends and family to join her in Egypt to celebrate her wedding to Simon Doyle (Ernie Hammer), has concerns about her personal safety. reason to do so. Guests on a wedding cruise down the Nile include Lynette’s former friend Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackay), who uninvited after being betrayed by an heir and dumped inexplicably by her lover. Many others in the party have reason to not like Lynette or Simon, or both – and each other.
The murder on the Orient Express, due to the particular mode of transport, was a tumultuous affair and allowed Poirot to travel from place to place in Europe in search of the killer. In death of the NileOne who has a deliberate tempo and plays almost entirely on a sailing ship, the private eye has room to retreat to itself, contemplate one’s past, and contemplate the circumstances which may have led to death. He has been called for investigation. So, the first hour of death on the nile The audience is spent on guessing whose death is near. We are introduced to the various characters across the board and provide glimpses of the love they lose, the rancor they build, and the resentment they harbor. Once the murder occurs, the focus of the guessing game is clearly on investigating the potential killer and Poirot. Usually the body count is higher than in the Agatha Christie story and there are many red herrings thrown our way.
To begin with the most obvious suspect is Jacqueline thanks to the fact that she carries a pistol in her handbag. She’s healing the wounds of a recent betrayal. But Poirot has many others in mind, notably Lynette’s turned boyfriend, medical doctor and aristocrat Linus Windlesham (Russell Brand), her cousin and estate manager Andrew Kachdaurian (Ali Fazl), and sleuth friend Bock (Tom Bateman). , whatever it was. The first film).
As Poirot gathers clues and interrogates suspects and his investigation moves him closer to a conclusion, his gloomy mood (the source of which is a black-and-red link to his World War I combat experience and a personal tragedy). White is explained in flashbacks, an aspect that Christie never explored in the novels and short stories she devoted to the man’s adventures) the film comes to bear and Branagh does it with full force at his command. brings out.
Actors playing suspects are provided, on their part, the opportunity to delve into aspects of their roles that are not immediately or on the surface obvious. Sophie Okonedo shines brightest as a famous painter and Bock’s mother, playing American blues singers Salome Otterborn and Annette Bening.
Ali Fazal, in the guise of a brash man who keeps a lot to himself, is also brilliant. The actor uses his eyes, smile and gait to illustrate what lies beneath the surface. Comedian Jennifer Saunders, cast against Type, is amazing as the socialite godmother of the bride, whatever. It turns out, there may have been a motive for the murder.
death on the nileExquisitely crafted and tastefully packaged. The spectacle it creates is bright and seductive but its dazzle is neither blinding nor coherent. But despite its old-fashioned and predictable trajectory, the film doesn’t lose its grip on the flow of the narrative nor loses its grip on the audience. It is a classically structured, well-acted and firmly executed puzzle that is well worth a look.
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