Murder on The Orient Express

A bit before (1974) our heads were turned to outer space and the reign of the Force and the Arthurian culture of the Jedi, there was the first film version of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries. It starred greats of the silver screen taking a trip through the Swiss Alps to get back to Paris. It was so luxurious I don’t think anyone who hadn’t read the book beforehand would have doubted this was the absolute ultimate in traveling through Europe. Certainly not the quickest way to get from Istanbul to Paris, like say, taking a dirigible, but then again, that would have been a whole different story.  This version had its good points and not so good.

Agatha Christie mysteries are like Chinese puzzle boxes that you have to take apart in just the right manner to get to the “who done it” answer hidden deep inside. This story is no exception, but for the fact that some of the characters have been, how shall I put it, modified to satisfy a “political correctness” that didn’t really exist during this time period.  Knowing that and trying to get past it, so it wasn't a distraction, was a bit difficult for me. 

Kenneth Branagh both directed and starred as the world’s greatest detective and I applaud his efforts in trying to fill the shoes of Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov, who both lent their own uniqueness to previous portrayals of Monsieur Poirot and the use of his “little gray cells”. Kenneth is sufficiently OCD,almost a bit more so than as written, but nicely done. The cast is comparable to the ’74 cast and the basics are and have to be identical to the book otherwise you’re messing with perfection and that’s a sure-fire recipe for failure. Overall, I feel it will be a front-runner for hair and makeup and set-design awards.

I’m going to be nitpicky about one thing that I truly missed from the first film, and that was the music that you hear when the train is on its way. It’s iconic and identifies this film just as John Williams or Hans Zimmer, or any of the great composers have done in countless other classic films. It adds a dimension of opulence that’s lacking here. The closing credits, however, are nicely wrapped up by an original song delivered by Michelle Pfeiffer and a glimmer of what’s to come. Rating: 3 stars (Professor Plum in the Observatory with a Candlestick, or was that Miss Scarlett in the Library with a Wrench?, so difficult to decide nowadays).