MPAA Rating: PG-13/ Genre: Mystery/ Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Marwan Kenzari, Olivia Colman, Lucy Boynton, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Sergei Polunin, Miranda Raison/ Runtime: 114 minutes
I feel it is safe to start this review off by telling you that the whole idea of remaking a murder mystery, but especially one of the most popular murder mysteries ever made, is an idea that right from the get-go is just one filled with risk and box-office bomb filled-peril. This is due to many reasons, but the chief one being the fact that when you think about it a lot of people who will make up quite a bit of the audience will already know the proverbial “whodunit” at the end of the story either because they’ve already read it, seen a previous version, or just plain and simply heard about it through some of that good old-fashioned cultural osmosis that seems to permeate the membranes of our society. Thus it is that when you eliminate that it also can feel like a little bit of the magic that is commonly associated with this particular genre is gone too.
That being said I feel that it was an exceptionally smart decision to bring Kenneth Branagh on board when it came time to remake Murder on the Orient Express. That is because not only has this iconic director of such celebrated adaptations as 1989’s Henry V, 1993’s Much Ado about Nothing and the legendary 1996 telling of Hamlet, that coincidentally I would still love to be re-released in theaters at some point, built his whole reputation, one could argue, on re-staging some of the most timeless and classic tales that literature has given us, and which had already been re-staged thousands of times at that point, and made them fresh and enjoyable, but also because Branagh knows that the trick to making another Murder on the Orient Express is NOT to keep us guessing. That is because Agatha Christie’s impeccable story does all of that heavy lifting for him; instead the true trick is to film the hell out of an ensemble cast of incredible actors, each of them putting their own spin on a timeless classic, make sure that this film is shot with an absolutely wonderful eye, and to just have a grand old time doing it and with all of those elements in play while this is an unnecessary remake it nevertheless is still a very entertaining ride to be enjoyed at least once.
The plot is as follows: Our story focuses on a man named Hercule Poirot who, alongside possessing a seemingly obsessive-compulsive manner that in every way that would make Monk proud and so much more is also, according to himself and seemingly everyone else who mentions it in this film, the most brilliant detective in the world. He is also however an exhausted brilliant detective who following a difficult case is in dire need of a vacation. Unfortunately it isn’t long before our brilliantly mustached and just altogether brilliant detective is called away from his holiday to solve yet another case that is baffling the authorities, much to his personal dismay, and so in order to get where he needs to be, he is able to, thanks to a dear friend, secure the last seat on board the Orient Express in Istanbul on its way to Paris. It isn’t long of course before we soon see that he is sharing this train ride with a variety of characters including a doctor, a governess, a shady businessman, a countess, and even a Russian princess. However when a small avalanche knocks the Orient Express off the tracks and then followed in rather quick succession by the discovery that one of the passengers has been viciously and ruthlessly stabbed to death it’s up to Poirot and his little grey cells to, while being stuck in fairly close quarters with all of the passengers, discover just which one of them may in fact have been capable of murder….
Now the cast of Murder on the Orient Express is second to none because in addition to director Kenneth Branagh, we are also treated to performances by Dame Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Josh Gad, Penelope Cruz, Derek Jacobi, Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Leslie Odom Jr, and Olivia Colman. Indeed movie goers this list of actors is nothing short of absolutely phenomenal, and the fact that we are getting to see them all in one place is fairly impressive. Yet I feel that while there are a few actors in the supporting cast who do absolutely phenomenal work with their characters, including Daisy Ridley and Michelle Pfeiffer who are absolutely radiant in their time on screen, Gad who once again shows there’s more to him than just voicing a snowman for Disney, Dafoe who honestly is just great in about anything that he shows up in, and even Johnny Depp who in this film actually puts in a good non-Johnny Depp performance here that does NOT involve in any way phoning a drunken pirate performance in for Disney,
I do feel though that we rather tragically do not get to spend enough time with a lot of the other characters for their personalities and the various actions they undertake to really have any sort of impact. Indeed while like I said there are exceptions to this rule there are at least a few characters aboard this train who we aren’t really given any idea on who they are beyond an introduction and an interrogation scene. Indeed it almost feels like with these other characters they are here with the only objective to provide everyone in the audience with the information that the film’s plot requires we have. Indeed this unfortunately also has effects in other parts of the film because while the mystery the film presents you with is truly compelling enough to make you genuinely curious as to who the killer could be the fact that you can’t really get invested with everyone in the supporting cast, save for a few, really makes it downright difficult to say that by the end of the film’s runtime that you will actually care to know who the killer is. Indeed it’s not that this cast is bad movie goers, far from it in point of fact, but rather it’s the fact that a lot of them are so tragically underutilized.
But although he’s got one hell of an ensemble cast going for him, Kenneth Branagh (as usual) saves the juiciest part for himself, and I think it is safe to say that he knocks this performance out of the park for a home run that is all his own. This is because Branagh’s performance of Agatha Christie’s legendary detective Poirot is absolutely wonderful. I mean from the fact that he is both heroic and hilarious to the fact that while this phenomenally gifted man is driven by compulsion he also takes equal delight in being quite impishly amused by his own cleverness, right down to Poirot showing a genuinely human side due to the fact that, as the mystery plows forward, and the clues begin to make less and less sense, you begin to see his uncertainty start to slowly tear him apart. Indeed while you can always see Poirot’s gears turning, and it’s delightful when the engine works to the fullest extent of its abilities it is also quite tragic and one could argue even human when it starts to sputter a little bit before bouncing back to its full extent, and Branagh manages to nail down all the little quirks that have truly made Poirot an icon in the fictional detective community for the past 96 years. Indeed, despite many a famous actor having had a go at this legend Branagh truly manages to make the character his own and add for him a new chapter in the story of his life on screen.
As good as Branagh’s turn as Poirot is in this movie he may be even better as the director of the piece. I say this because even if one could say nothing else positive about this film I doubt that even those people could argue against the fact that Murder of the Orient Express is an absolutely lovely to look at film. Indeed by being shot on 65-millimeter film, this movie combines the sort of filmmaking usually reserved for massive epics with a story told almost entirely in a single location and it pays off fairly well to the point that the singular location, plus the wide shots as the train travels to its intended destination are a certainly lovely treat to behold. That and it also helps showcase just how every bit as ornate as its classic name implies the train proves to be, and though the camera occasionally decides to go for these odd overhead shots that seem to be trying to draw your attention to the confined space, but only end up making you dizzy Branagh shows that he is still a phenomenal director and a true force to be reckoned with and I honestly am very excited to see how he handles the big-screen adaptation of the Artemis Fowl books that he is attached to.
All in all though movie goers Murder on the Orient Express is a film that did not need to be remade in even the slightest. I mean if you’ve already seen Sidney Lumet’s Oscar-winning Orient Express film from 1974 then I hate to break your heart, but then you’ve already seen a pitch perfect rendition of Agatha Christie at her very best, and if you haven’t then shame on you and plus what are you waiting for? Like really that movie truly is a bonafide classic even IF it was made 43 years ago. That being said however I did find that Branagh’s interpretation of this timeless story is just as delightful in some ways, and almost as delightful in all the others. Indeed Murder on the Orient Express “2017” truly is a well-cast, well-acted, and well-directed remake of a timeless story, and after seeing it I honestly would love to see at the very least one more adventure featuring this particular Poirot. On a scale of 1–5 I give Murder on the Orient Express “2017” a 3.5 out of 5.
