Can't say I'm a fan of this title card. It's awfully plain for a film that's full of beautiful cinematography.
Murder on the Orient Express is based on one of Agatha Christie's better-known novels. I've never read it or any of her other novels (shocking, I know), so I was one of the few people who didn't know the twist ending before I watched the film.
There's a long list of familiar faces (and actors whose names I recognised but whose other films I've never seen):
Kenneth Branagh (Lockhart in Harry Potter) as Poirot
Judi Dench (Miss Matty in Cranford) as Princess Dragomiroff
Daisy Ridley (Rey in Star Wars) as Mary
Hadley Fraser (Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary) as an unnamed soldier
Leslie Odom Jr. (Burr in Hamilton) as Dr. Arbuthnot
Johnny Depp (Jack in Pirates of the Caribbean) as Ratchett/Cassetti
Penélope Cruz (Angelica in Pirates of the Caribbean) as Pilar
Derek Jacobi (Nell's grandfather in The Old Curiosity Shop 2007) as Masterman
The story starts with Poirot solving a crime in Israel. This case has nothing to do with the main plot, but it establishes Poirot's skill as a detective and is pretty interesting to watch. I laughed when the criminal tries to escape... only to run into Poirot's walking stick 😄
Poirot
Poirot goes to Istanbul, where he gets on the Orient Express... and meets his fellow passengers, many of whom are a bit odd. (To say the least!) We get some truly beautiful scenery as the train travels towards its destination.
Some of the amazing scenery in this film.
There are also some amusing interactions between the passengers. I laughed at the "I brushed Dalia this morning." "No, you tortured my darling doggy." conversation. And I loved the scene of Poirot reading A Tale of Two Cities -- though I have to wonder what he was laughing at. Of all Dickens' books, that one's second only to Great Expectations for "fewest comical scenes". There's certainly very little that would make anyone laugh out loud in it.
The train is caught in an avalanche and stuck in place until someone comes to dig it out. That's when the inevitable happens: someone is murdered. Poirot and his friend Bouc are the only people who aren't suspects. So they start questioning the other passengers.
Why is the discovery of the murder filmed from the ceiling? It's impossible to see anyone's reactions when the camera is focused on the tops of their heads. Most of the movie is beautifully filmed, so surely they could have found a way to shoot that scene while letting the audience see the characters' faces.
Speaking of the way scenes are filmed, I'm not a fan of those bits in the dining room where the characters are seen through glass. It's blurry and disorientating. But I suppose it fits the mood of the scene.
Ratchett, the victim, was a thoroughly unpleasant man who had received threatening letters. The window to his carriage was found open. Even when I watched this for the first time and didn't know the ending, I knew the open window was a red herring. No way would a murder mystery have such a neat, easy-to-solve crime.
Poirot and Bouc examining the body. Another scene inexplicably filmed from above.
Would someone please explain what that kimono has to do with the plot? I can understand the conductor's uniform, but the kimono is just... odd.
It's revealed Ratchett was really a kidnapper and murderer named Cassetti. Poirot finds a note that shows Ratchett/Cassetti was killed by someone avenging the Armstrongs, the family Ratchett (directly and indirectly) killed.
Not only is this film a murder mystery, it's an exercise in foreign languages. Poirot speaks French several times through the film, and I was embarrassed to discover just how bad my grasp on spoken French is. It took me a long time to realise he was saying "allons-y" in the final scene 😓 On the bright side, I was astonished when I understood half of what Poirot and Schmidt said in German, without the help of subtitles. Progress!
Some of the passengers apparently set out to make themselves as suspicious as possible. What on earth was MacQueen thinking when he decided to burn evidence? All right, so he probably panicked and didn't think, but that's exactly the behaviour that will make a detective investigate even more.
I'm very impressed with everyone's acting. I don't think there's a single weak performance among the entire cast. Even character who have very few scenes or lines are completely convincing.
Poirot accuses Miss Debenham of being the murderer. Dr. Arbuthnot tries to kill him and claims he was the murderer. In the process he answers Poirot's remaining questions and lets him solve the case quicker. I spent this entire scene going "it was her-- no, him-- no, someone else-- no, both of them..." But I never expected the actual solution.
All the suspects
I love Poirot's little speech just before he solves the crime. It's suitably awesome for such a dramatic moment.
"You tell your lies and you think no one will know. But there are two people who will know. Yes, two people. Your God, and Hercule Poirot."
Almost everyone already knows who the murderers were, but still: SPOILERS!
At first I couldn't believe that literally everyone in the carriage had murdered Cassetti. But as the denouement continued, an awful lot of things began to make sense. I still don't know what was up with Miss Debenham wearing that kimono, though. It seemed to have nothing to do with the case. Were they trying to send Poirot on a wild goose chase?
In most films, twelve people who stabbed a man to death would not be the sympathetic characters. But it's impossible not to pity them. I burst into tears at the flashback to Pilar being unable to stop Ratchett kidnapping Daisy. And the tears just got worse from then on. Especially when we learn who Mrs. Hubbard really is. And when she picks up the gun... 😭
Just to make things even sadder, we get Poirot's "letter" to Colonel Armstrong. 😭😭 Even the final scene of the train slowly moving away is pretty depressing 😢 I had to laugh, though, at Poirot getting off the train only to be asked to solve another murder. He just can't get a proper holiday!
This film has very quickly become one of my favourites. I don't know how close it sticks to the novel, but it's a good film on its own. I'm impatiently waiting for the sequel. Hopefully it won't fall victim to the flaws that sequels often suffer from.
Is it available online?: I don't think so.
Rating: 9/10.
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