Review of Murder on the Orient Express (2017) by Hisham D — 16 Dec 2017

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS is a 2017 Crime-Drama Mystery movie directed by Kenneth Brannagh, Daisy Ridley, Josh gad, Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Michelle Pfeiffer, Leslie Odom, Jr. and Judi Dench.

Murder on the Orient Express is based on Agatha Christie's infamous novel of the same name, and it follows the story of the most famous detective alive, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh), as investigates a murder that takes place inside the Orient Express. Will he succeed?

Having read the book and watched multiple adaptions throughout the years, I was genuinely excited to hear that Kenneth Branagh will be the lead and directing this version. Glad to see it didn't disappoint. The combination of the direction, production, performances, sound and twisted plot makes this movie quite intriguing and thrilling.

Let's talk about the most prominent part of the movie: the mustache. Never in cinematic history is one to see a mustache as grandiose as this one (not that I am aware of anyways). The mustache adds to the fact that the best joke in the movie revolves around it. While some found it to be distracting, I find it to be rewarding as it added to the character's personality, and provided the greatest gag in the entire movie.

Easily the best part of the movie is the overall performances of the entire star-studded cast, particularly Kenneth Brannagh, Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer. It is quite please to see Pfeiffer return in 2017 after a long hiatus. Depp departs from the comedic, cartoonish characters we're used to see him in, and gives us a proper gangster-like character that belonged to that age. then of course, Brannagh. Being the lead of the the movie, he definitely gives us the role of a perfectionist whose undergoing an existential crisis and yet is called in to save the day, and in the end his own self.

While the screenplay only captured the essence of Christie's writings, and it is was quite refreshing to watch a murder mystery for a change being unfolded and to see the words of intellectual people pop out on-screen. The philosophy exchanged about human life, pain and loss is presented beautifully as the audience start to know about the characters' backgrounds. The themes that are explored like race, stereotypes, religion and economy were elegantly portrayed with subtlety and ease.

The choice of the tight angles in photography was an interesting technique that Brannagh cleverly utilized to make us, the audience, be part of the train experience. How small the rooms are, how challenging it is to walk through the corridors and how bleak it is despite the luxurious props presented. In contract to the wide 65mm shots shown earlier in the movie, as well as the scenes that take outside the train, the wide-shots would be taken to make the audience feel the actual space and stretch its view more comfortably. To a certain degree, the movie felt like it was borrowing certain images and shots from The Polar Express (2004), which added a few layers.

The main negative point of the movie is not providing the secondary characters much to do. While all performed well; however, the script didn't give the characters much to do or the opportunity to have their potential unleashed other than exposition scenes about who they are or what they do. It seems a missed opportunity to get more from Cruz, Ridley, Dench, Gad or Dafoe. One will come out of the movie only remembering Brannagh, Depp and Pfeiffer's performances because they had the most scenes with dialogue, but the names of the characters are absolutely forgotten.

Another missed opportunity was the solving method of the mystery itself. Although it was intriguing with the performance being displayed in presenting the theories; however, the movie relied heavily on exposition to be done by the main character rather than to distribute it to the remaining cast. That approach didn't allow the audience to engage with the mystery and relied 100% on the detective to provide the missing information.

Overall, Murder on the Orient Express is a beautiful revival of the murder-mystery classic, and takes a fresh take of the book and has a good promise to become a franchise and perhaps a sequel, (Death on the Nile anyone?) One thing for sure, the mustache will definitely be remembered as a glorious one.

Murder on the Orient Express gets a B+.