Review of Murder on the Orient Express (2017) by Avid_Reader — 22 Nov 2017

I suspect if you have not read the book, you may like this movie better. There's no doubt that there's much to commend, with a fine (albeit wasted) cast and impressive cinematography. As well as being a massive Christie fan and having read the book more times than I can remember, I also saw the original (and excellent) 1974 movie, so this movie had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, it didn't really deliver.

Let's start with Branagh's Poirot and that moustache. Ridiculous, but not in the way that Christie painted him. Viewers need look no further than Suchet's Poirot for how this character should look and be played. He is a ridiculous little egg-head of a man, fastidious to a point (he would never deliberately step in manure) and inordinately proud of his silly, jet-black moustache. Sadly, Branagh's Poirot is too tall, the moustache is over the top (even for Poirot) and is a man of action. The addition of a ridiculous and unnecessary love backstory was a major irritant, as was the time wasted on a whole sequence where Poirot solves another mystery at the beginning of the movie. Time that could have been better spent setting the scene for the Armstrong kidnapping or fleshing out other characters a bit more.

Another important point, of 12 stab wounds, 12 passengers and the idea of a jury passing judgment on a criminal (a major point in the book and the original movie) was thrown out the window, which was a pity. The whole point was that those 12 passengers (well, 11 + the conductor) sat in judgment on Cassett and executed him, as they saw it).

Michelle Pfeiffer was excellent, she did a great job with a fairly poorly written script and her Mrs Hubbard was most believable. Daisy Ridley was also wonderful as the cool and composed Mary Debenham - I did find the amount of screentime she received, over and above other characters, rather unbalanced though. As others have said, Judi Dench was completely wasted in this movie, as was the wonderful Olivia Coleman and others. A chase over an aqueduct structure at one point, a shooting scene and an additional stabbing added nothing to the story and seemed overindulgent to me. Some of the camera work was irritating - there were a lot of shots from above, less of these would have made this view more effective.

I didn't think the additions to the storyline really added much. Making Poirot a friend of the Armstrongs was another self-indulgence, in my opinion. The unfolding of the whole Armstrong backstory was heavy handed. See the 1974 movie for its treatment of this backstory - it was much better.

This story relies on the tension of the passengers in the Calais coach - the train has been stopped due to the snow, they cannot leave the train. Messing with that and having a story where passengers are getting on and off the train and walking around in the snow having conversations with Poirot and one another, just ruins that tension and is frankly, quite silly.

To sum up - this movie was a huge disappointment and did not deliver on all the hype that surrounded it. I will go home tonight and watch the original movie to make myself feel better.