Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Murder on the orient express (2017)

Rating : 3/5

Cast : Kenneth Branaugh, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley

Director : Kenneth Branaugh

Based on a story by Agatha Christie

Review by Zulfiqar

            Poirot, like never before, takes the case on a personal level, which is never his style. It becomes a little jarring as we notice the way he gives a helpless look every now and then over the matter, not because he couldn’t solve the case but because he is lamenting on the human nature. For any other detective, it could be fine, but not for Poirot. Poirot rarely gives into emotions, because he is always in command of his faculties.

            Kenneth Branaugh, while directing this delicious slice of Christie’s literature, makes the little detective not only muscle his grey cells, but also his literal brawn, as he indulges in a few brawls with the villains. It is definitely a point that when you are indulged in criminal matters, you couldn’t put yourself outside the line of danger. But Poirot’s intuitiveness is so compelling that he slithers out of these situations by bold plays of reasoning. These are the little things, which affect the latest take of ‘murder on the orient express’.

            But the bigger things are the lacing in of abundance of gratuitous racial slurs. I don’t see any necessity why the color of skin is dragged in for no reason. It, for me, hampers the source material from its mystery. There are barbs of Americans on Europeans and vice-versa and also among themselves. When Colonel Arbuthnot in Sidney Lumet’s version refers ‘Frenchman’ as a frog, he ends the discussion there. But not here. Here practically every person of the crew isn’t in anyway comfortable with his neighbor. Probably, they are trying to mislead the little detective, but they add a meaningless anti-tone to the movie rather than making us interested in the real story.

            However, Kenneth Branaugh shines as Poirot, who is fastidious with the size of ‘oeufs’ and the angle of the ties, and histrionically splutters with his ‘Dickens’. He adds a nice little comic touch to the Belgian detective not only with his physical aspect of brandishing a handle bar mustache and a streak of vegetation under the lower lip, but he gives a genial aspect by being considerate with kids and women, and always in for a laugh with very meager of sense of humor one could possess.

            His nice little comic-ness is also visible in the way he is in search of a nice holiday and would never be able to get it. The first class coach of orient express from Istanbul to Paris is loaded with a myriad of global characters with different nationalities. With the grace of monsieur Bouc, the director of the line, Poirot manages a last minute inclusion into the coach. After Mr Ratchett (Johnny Depp), a shady millionaire, offers him equally shady job, which Poirot refuses as he doesn’t like the latter’s face, mystery befalls the train by the murder of Ratchett, which occurred probably around midnight. The landslide snow has halted the journey and it is on Poirot to solve the case before they reach the next station. Poirot goes through the routine of interrogating each one of them - countesses, counts, Russian pricesses, police detective, automobile dealers and whom-not. The mystery leads him to the past of Ratchett, which is more diabolic than the incident at hand.

            Depp delivers a dried and detached performance of Ratchett, who is suspicious of everyone starting from his butler and secretary. Dame Judi Dench is all authority personified in her royal bearings. Penelope Cruz’s latin religious  and repenting governess is suitable but doesn’t match that ethereal performance of Bergman in Lumet’s version. But comparison is really unfair for Cruz. Daisy Ridley and Leslie Odom Jr as love birds in the form of Mary Debenham and Dr Arbuthnot is comparably just. The rest of the cast goes through the tropes. But at the heart, ‘murder on…..’ suffers because it doesn’t have much inventiveness in its storytelling.  It has the production quality with the rampaging train shots and landslides, but it fails at having proper spirit.

It is inevitable at subconscious level that it should be compared with Lumet’s version. Lumet’s vision was more focused with the problem at hand. He loitered more on the puzzle than on the extras. He respected the red herrings and didn’t divulge about the characters before the final denouement. For example, Branaugh’s Poirot suspects the origins of Count and Countess, miss Debenham and others at the first sitting, which doesn’t add to the mystery at the end. The old version had also a very unique screenplay and haunting background score. Most of all, Finney’s version of Poirot was exemplary. One could marvel at the way he handles the volatile Colonel Arbuthnot (by an imposing Sean Connery) and also the meekest Swedish governess (Ingrid Bergmann) with a varying tone of probing.

However, Branaugh handles the lapses in the tone while bearing the whole tide on his acting shoulders. It is clear-cut from the final few minutes that a franchise has started. ‘Death on the Nile’ is the next case. Sticking to the originality of Christie’s characters could be the key here, because with her characters comes the tone of the mystery, which is all it is about.