Murder on the Orient Express

 

"The murderer is with us, and every one of you is a suspect"

 

In this retelling of the classic murder mystery, a passenger on The Orient Express is murdered, and it is up to Belgian detective Hercule Poirot to solve the mystery and catch the killer before they strike again.

The problem Kenneth Branagh faced with directing this movie was how to retell a classic murder story from 1934 (which has been retold many times for the screen) with means to appeal to a modern audience, as well as making one of the most familiar endings to a story not so much a whodunit, but a howdunit to keep the audience guessing.

This version does have a somewhat modern outlook; some of the era’s attitudes are challenged and the ethnicities of some characters are changed; Penelope Cruz’s Pilar Estravados is a Spanish missionary rather than a Swedish one, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s Mexican car dealer Marquez replaces Italian Foscarelli, and Leslie Odom Jr’s Arbuthnot is now a black English doctor who replaces the colonel.

To add modern cinematic glamour, the original snowdrift that blocks the train’s journey is replaced by a stunning looking avalanche, triggered by a lightning bolt, which derails the train, leaving it immovable on top of an intensely towering viaduct.

Branagh and his cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos shot in 65mm, giving the movie a truly epic feel with its swooping bird’s eye view over the vast, gorgeous landscape as the train travels through desert, rain and snow. Apparently, they used the last four Panavision 60mm cameras left in the world to shoot with.  As with Thor, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, and Cinderella, the duo decline to shoot on digital. Scenes are filmed in cramped dorms and narrow corridors to create a confined setting that no one can escape from, and it certainly escalates the tension.

Our introduction to Poirot is a comedic one that gives us an insight into his meticulous methods with his obsession over the perfect boiled eggs, making his Jerusalem hosts run back and forth to find more of them. We’re also presented his ludicrous moustache, which out-dos any of the taches worn by former actors portraying the Belgian. We are then interrupted by the police chief, who seeks Poirot’s master detective skills to solve a case of a stolen relic.

Once we are aboard the Orient Express we meet our massive, talented cast and are treated to a great tracking shot from outside the train following Poirot down the corridors as he passes and greets each of the passengers, until we are briskly brought inside the carriage for a conversation with his bunk mate, Hector MacQueen, played by an impressive Josh Gat. As well as MacQueen we have Miss Mary Debenham, (Daisy Ridley) Dr. Arbuthnot, (Leslie Odom Jr) Pilar Estravados, (Penelope Cruz ) Biniamino Marquez, (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) Edward Ratchett, (Johnny Depp) Edward Henry Masterman, (Derek Jacobi) Count Rudolph Andrenyi, (Sergei Polunin) Countess Elena Andrenyi, (Lucy Boynton) Caroline Hubbard, (Michelle Pfeiffer) Princess Dragomiroff, (Judi Dench) Hildegarde Schmidt, (Olivia Colman) and Gerhard Hardman. (Willem Dafoe)  There is also Poirot’s friend who owns the train company; Bouc. (Tom Bateman) With so many renowned and veteran actors it’s a shame they don’t all have more to do. We learn of their backgrounds and politics, however they are only given a handful of lines and we never truly get to know any of them excluding Hubbard, Ratchett and Poirot himself. We get a few emotional scenes of dialogue, especially from Judi Dench and Josh Gat, but it is mostly Branagh himself who steals the show. For some reason Poirot is given a love interest in the form of a photograph, that doesn’t really offer any more insight into his character and doesn’t help develop the story at all.

Then comes the murder; a frantic stabbing in the night. Poirot agrees to investigate and informs the remaining passengers that someone has been murdered, and he will be questioning them all. The camera style in this scene visually pleasing; a POV shot from Poirot’s perspective, walking through the seated passengers as they all catch his suspicious gaze one by one. It’s familiar to a first person video game, allowing us to watch the faces of the suspects as we tread past them.  The murder scene itself is shot well, with a bird’s eye view above the cabin as the body is found and remaining in the corridor, robbing us of the chance to see the crime scene for ourselves.

The rest of the film sees the tension and the suspicions start to mount up; each character appearing guarded with something to hide. Regrettably the investigation itself isn’t very cinematic and lacks any kind of action apart from a pointless chase scene which is evidently used to add some danger and violence, but this is a device to distract the audience as it ultimately has nothing to do with the story.

The movie looks fantastic. Whereas previous versions have been highly acclaimed they weren’t afforded the kind of budget that a modern blockbuster can obtain, so huge landscape shots covered in white and bustling European cities really make this version by far the most cinematic. However, there are scenes of the train meandering its way through snow covered landscapes that look a little too digital, almost tricking you into thinking you’re watching The Polar Express.

The script too is great and Branagh captures the society of the period brilliantly. Race influences a few of the white, bigoted passengers’ suspicions of the murderer to point to the black doctor, and MacQueen suggests his theory to Poirot as it being Marquez, the Mexican.

The movie falls apart mainly due to its’ characters. None of them have any depth and it is Poirot who is privileged with the chief character background and progression, which still isn’t used to its potential. When it comes to presenting his theory of what happened, he has everyone seated in a ‘Last Supper’ style but fails to explain how he unravelled the mystery, and then the focus just shifts from the reveal to how he will morally handle it, then he is once again needed for another investigation for a death on the Nile; a clear nod to another Agatha Christie mystery which raises the question of a series of films.

Although the movie never moves at full speed it gains gradual momentum, mainly driven by the tense, cramped interrogations and emotion portrayed by brilliant actors. And the fresh take on the story does work, however it could have been improved greatly by giving supporting characters more screen time, making the story more about the mystery itself as opposed to focusing so largely on Poirot and his moral dilemmas at the expense of the others, which is ultimately what it became.