Murder on the Orient Express: Movie Review

'Tis the times of remaking classics, fa la-la-la-la-la la, la-la la la. We have here a remake of a classic murder mystery adapted from a novel, which in 1975 which got 6 oscar nominations including a win. This is the tale penned by the popular and acclaimed author, Agatha Christe - Murder on the Orient Express.


Kenneth Branagh has taken on the task of directing the modern day iteration of a classic, while simulataneously doning the role of Hercule Poirot, possibly the greatest detective in the world. We get a star-studded ensemble including Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Josh Gad, Olivia Colman and Michelle Pfeiffer as part of the seventeen main characters. And that right there is the problem.

I have not read the novel nor seen the 1974 film, so this new screen adaption of Murder on the Orient Express was seen and experienced with a clean slate. While the IMDB listing states the movie has a runtime of 1hr54m, I distinctly remember the film being at least 15 minutes short of that which might be the handiwork of the Indian Censor Board. But still, that felt inadequate to explore all the characters in the film. It was crisp, well-edited with a pacy narrative, which left a lot of questions unasked or unanswered and that's a big flaw in a murder mystery especially when including a detective known for his attention to detail. While some of the characters exist in pairs in the narrative, like the Count and Countess and the Princess and her maid, it is still too many characters without enough interactions to get the audience involved and invested in any of them.

Those flaws aside, it's still a decent film with expected high quality performances from the entire cast, especially Kenneth Branagh himself. The props and makeup department deserve appreciation too for taking the audience back in time and providing an aesthetically appealing setup for the story to unfold. The rest of the cast characters on the train were Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom Jr., Manuel Garcia-Ruflo, Penelope Cruz, Derek Jacobi, Sergei Polunin, Marwan Kenzari, Lucy Boynton and Tom Bateman.

They also did leave a scope for a possible sequel for Branagh to return as Poirot and the Belgian's magnificent moustache in Murder on the Nile, but no official word on that yet. I'd rate this movie 8 oueffs out of 11.

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