Kenneth Branagh steps back behind the camera and into the shoes of legendary detective Hercule Poirot for the second time inDeath On The Nile,the director’s second Agatha Christie adaptation followingMurder On The Orient Express. Like that film, the story is once again built on a murder mystery and a coterie of suspects, each with their own motive. While the basis of the film is widely considered a classic of the mystery genre, the movie, unfortunately, cannot live up to its legacy.
WhileMurder On the Orient Expresswas a modern return to the screen for the Belgian detective,Death On The Nileis not afforded the same novelty. Rather than feeling like a direct sequel,Nilegives the impression that this particular franchise may have already overstayed its welcome after just two entries.
RELATED:Cara Delevingne Joins Season 2 Of Only Murders In The Building
The story here is classic Christie: While on vacation (ostensibly) in Egypt, master detective Hercule Poirot finds himself embroiled in a new case, one which only he can solve. It involves the death of a wealthy heiress (played by Gal Gadot) aboard a boat that is traversing the titular river. There are many suspects, but only one solution to the puzzle of who killed the heiress (although hers is not the only death that requires solving by the end).
Before getting to any of that, though, the movie takes some time to revisit Poirot’s past, though the reason why is not entirely clear. Flashbacks to the detective’s days fighting in the First World War involve a digitally de-aged Branagh, which just seems like an excuse to showcase the technology more than anything. This prologue doesn’t do much to build on the story, though it does offer an origin story for Poirot’s mustache (one that seems to crib stylistically from the reveal ofHarvey Dent’s burned face inThe Dark Knight).
Following this re-introduction to the character is almost an hour of setting up the story leading up to the murder. This is the movie’s most glaring weakness: it’s a murder mystery whose second act does not begin with the murder. It brings to mind a muchbetter murder mystery movie:Knives Out.Where that film was working from scratch, the Christie influence was clear, and it managed to construct a solid mystery with a modern twist.Death On the Nileis working with material from one of the greatest mystery writers of all time, and yet rather than enhancing Christie’s storytelling through modern filmmaking, the movie just dilutes it. It spends much of its first act just getting Poirot to Egypt in the first place. Once he’s there, there’s even more time spent introducing all the characters who will form the basis of the story.
Any mystery fan will know that building up the list of suspects is as important as anything else, but this movie makes a meal of it. Obviously, it’s important to let the audience know who each of these people is and how they might be the one behind the murder, but there are better ways to do this type of introduction. The clunky delivery of the list of suspects by Poirot’s good friend Bouc (played again by Tom Bateman) plays far too much like exposition, rather than organically building these people into the story. The film also takes several opportunities to remind the audience just who all the players involved are with tracking shots that capture the faces of every suspect.
This is a problem that permeates the film at large: the artificiality of the whole thing is hard to ignore,from the poorly rendered CGIto the obvious green screen shots in front of the pyramids. It’s entirely possible that this is done intentionally to evoke the type of films thatDeath On The Nilemay be drawing inspiration from, but it’s jarring nonetheless. It doesn’t help that the story moves at a snail’s pace only to arrive at a conclusion that is, unfortunately, less surprising and complex than the one inMurder On The Orient Express.
Despite some of Branagh’s shortcomings in the director’s chair, he still makes a good Poirot, if one that is still not quite as idiosyncratic as previous screen iterations. He captures the detective’s habits and disposition well, and even imbues some of his scenes with real emotional heft. It’s a performance that the rest of the cast never quite lives up to. Gadot isn’t given nearly enough to do, and it’s possible her role was fleshed out to justify her casting and give her more to do than just be the murder victim. Armie Hammer’s performance as the heiress’s new husband is noticeably forced, and no one else among the cast is given nearly enough to do to help them stand out in any significant way.
Ultimately, the movie suffers by acting as a sequel toMurder On The Orient Expressrather than a solid standalone mystery. This might explain the need to build on Poirot’s character by adding the emotional moments and mustache origin story, as well as the re-appearance of Bouc (who is not in the book, but is likely featured here to add more connective tissue to the previous film). It would have benefited the story if none of this was present, and Poirot simply found himself caught up in yet another murder mystery (maybe one that runs 90 minutes instead of over two hours). Instead, it just feels like the filmmakers thought the original story on its own wouldn’t be enough to satisfy a modern audience, and those additional elements were required to pad things out a bit.
It’s not yet known if there will be another entry in the Poirot-verse, but this is a series that already feels like it’s reached its limit after just two movies. When it comes to these kinds of murder mysteries, the lesson is that less is more, and that a singular murder investigation is far more interesting than understanding how one of the great literary detective characters decided that he needed to grow a mustache.
MORE:Knives Out 2 Expected To Hit Theaters And Netflix This Fall
Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile acts as a sequel to Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express. This time, Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of an heiress while he’s trying to vacation on the Nile. Like its predecessor, Death on the Nile is directed by Branagh and has a star-studded cast, including Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright, Russell Brand, and Rose Leslie.
