Title: Murder on the Orient Express
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Main actors: Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer
Distributor: 20th Century Fox (USA)
Year: 2017
Length: 2h35m
Genre: mystery
Plot:
When a murder occurs aboard the train he is travelling in, famed detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case.
Murder on the Orient Express is a 2017 film directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh which is inspired by the famous novel by Agatha Christie. A film that broke the box office, and whose success was widely expected, since it took Metro Goldwin Meyer 5 years to sell the rights of the subject.
Shot on a perfect reconstruction of the Orient Express, the film tells of a murder and the subsequent investigations of the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot on passengers, who seem to have nothing in common with each other.
Branagh’s Poirot will never be as peculiar as Sir David Suchet’s, but its modernity is appreciated. It should be appreciated that the director and his team took nine months to create Poirot’s majestic and characteristic moustache, starting from the descriptions that the author made of it in her novels.
In the list of superb actors chosen to bring this masterpiece to the big screen, we find a lovable scoundrel in Johnny Depp, and a perfect actress in Michelle Pfeiffer. Without forgetting the impeccable participation of Dame Judy Dench in the role of the Countess Dragomiroff. A film that does not disappoint on an acting level and always maintains itself at very high levels, thanks to the particularity of keeping all the actors together on stage for most of the time.
In addition to the casting, what makes this film great is the way it dealt with the themes of grief and loss throughout the story of the Armstrong family. The film teaches that whatever one’s social position, we can all be affected and shocked by a misfortune.
Another theme, which I had already noted in Sir David Suchet’s version, is that of human and divine justice. In effect, after the resolution of the case, one is led to wonder if revenge can be considered justice and if the separation between good and evil is really as clear-cut as it seems.
The film ends with a touching piece of music written by the director and performed by Michelle Pfeiffer, a very sad ballad if you imagine it sung by her character, and whose refrain is: “We will never forget you, You will never leave, In our hearts we kept you“.
The special effects are well done, and together with the editing they really give the sensation of being on board of the train.
The only weak point, if you look at the film with the knowledge of the sequel, Death on the Nile, is the ending, which is wrong, as the investigator is told of a murder on the Nile, while the one in the next film takes place during his stay in Egypt.
