[Move Review] Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Leslie Odom Jr, Penelope Cruz, Tom Bateman, Olivia Coleman, Lucy Boynton, Marwan Kenzari, Manuel Garcia, Sergei Polunin

It's a challenge to watch a film about Hercule Poirot starring anyone other than David Suchet. He played the character for 24 years. It's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role.

Murder on the Orient Express has also been dramatized on film and television many times - the 1974 film starring Albert Finney as Poirot is a classic. Alfred Molina portrayed the famed Belgian detective in a 2000 American television adaptation. Suchet himself appeared in a tv version in 2010.

Poirot isn't like Sherlock Holmes - we've had two different television versions of Holmes within the past few years, in addition to a film series. We've seen other actors as Sherlock, and other interpretations of the character now exist in the public consciousness. But Suchet's long tenure as the character means that's the only interpretation of the character that exists in most people's minds, unless the person happens to be someone who has seen the Finney film or the other films from the '70s starring Peter Ustinov.

That's a hard act to follow, that 24 years of the same face and mannerisms on the screen. In 2017, Kenneth Branagh decided to take up that challenge. He both directed and starred in an adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, featuring several of his favorite costars as well as a cast of big Hollywood names. That's not so different from the 1974 film, which had a huge cast of recognizable faces. Like its predecessors, this adaptation doesn't hew with 100% faithfulness to the original novel. It changes the names or nationalities of some characters, and shuffles the action and story elements around in an effort to make a literary "locked room" drama more exciting.

I was excited when I first heard about this adaptation. I'm a great fan of Branagh's work, and I adore many of the stars cast for the film, especially Derek Jacobi and Judi Dench. But on having seen the film, I'm not certain it's entirely successful. I don't object to a new interpretation of the character - Poirot in his literary form is rather off-putting, and it can be entertaining to see a new version of a familiar character. This version of the story tries to make Poirot more sympathetic by explaining the reason for some of his personality quirks. It also gives him a love interest of a sort, though thankfully the film doesn't try to create that relationship with one of the other characters.

This film also takes the action outside the train, having the characters disembark at several points. It inserts some action-movie action as well, which doesn't really fit with the kind of drawing-room drama with which Poirot is usually associated. Branagh ditched the portly appearance of the traditional Poirot to make the action more believable, but the action still seems out of place. This is a psychological thriller in a way, and didn't need an action scene.

The ensemble cast also makes it difficult for everyone to get enough screen time. Derek Jacobi and Judi Dench don't have a lot to do, which is a little sad. Michelle Pfeiffer does well in her part, Daisy Ridley shines, and Johnny Depp for a change is playing a relatively normal person who doesn't have a strange accent or costume. He isn't in the film for long; if you see what character he's playing and you know the original story, you'll know why. The rest of the cast are all right, but Branagh gets the bulk of the attention, especially with some extra scenes he's given to flesh out Poirot, and that means other characters get less attention.

In the end I found that I didn't enjoy this film as much as I'd hoped. It isn't a terrible film, but it isn't a great film either. If you like Kenneth Branagh and you don't mind that he's definitely not playing the traditional Poirot and has inserted some action-movie action into the story, you may enjoy this film. I liked watching Kenny, but I doubt I'll ever feel like watching this film again.