Murder on the Orient Express

It’s that time of year when every film released is a potential Oscar nominee.  That means that I will be seeing lots of movies over the next couple of months.  Today’s contender in the acting and cinematography categories is Kenneth Branagh’s remake of Sidney Lumet’s classic, Murder on the Orient Express.  It is mighty good.

Murder on the Orient Express (Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Willem Defoe, Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom, Jr., Josh Gad, Johnny Depp) – Remakes of famous and excellent movies are destined to failure and obscurity.  The original Murder on the Orient Express (1974), based on the Agatha Christie novel, won one Oscar (for Ingrid Bergman) and was nominated for five others.  That all-star cast included Albert Finney as the brilliant detective Hercule Poirot and featured Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, and Richard Widmark as the soon-to-be-murdered Ratchett.

 

Who would dare remake it?  The answer is five-time Oscar nominated writer, director and actor Kenneth Branagh, who has also re-done Henry V and Hamlet.  Branagh casts himself as the mustachioed Poirot and performs brilliantly.  He is deadly serious, sarcastically funny, permanently fastidious, and egotistically passionate about his work.  He surrounds himself with an all-star cast that, while not quite as prestigious as their predecessors, includes Oscar nominees Michelle Pfeiffer (3 times), Penelope Cruz (one win from 3 nominations), Willem Defoe (2 times), Judi Dench (1 win from 7 nominations), Johnny Depp (3 times), and youngsters Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom, Jr. and Josh Gad.

 

By now, most of you know the story.  Poirot, fresh off solving a crime in Jerusalem, is summoned to London via the Orient Express, the famous train known for its luxury travel from Istanbul to England.  Shortly after arriving, a shady businessman named Ratchett (Depp) is murdered.  By deduction, Poirot determines that the killer must come from the luxury compartment.  He sets about solving the crime, which of course he does in the climactic scene of the film.

 

Branagh’s version is grand.  The photography in Jerusalem and Istanbul is stunning.  The soundtrack soars.  And the shots in and around the train are compact and glorious.

 

As reluctant as I was to see yet another remake of this whodunit whose ending I knew well, I walked away having totally enjoyed this version.  As long as you don’t much compare this to the 33-year-old original, you should love Branagh’s take on Christie’s cunning story.

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