Murder On The Orient Express

This review may contain spoilers!

This film is a rather lazily written attempt at recapturing one of the most famous crime/mystery stories of all time. I would give Murder On The Orient Express a 4/10.

This film is whimsical at the best of times, the central character of Poirot is allowed his moments of witticism which lends the film a much needed lighter tone if key places. In regards to the overall tone of the film, there is a great element of mystery established which has you guessing and wondering as an audience member; the successful portrayal of this tone allows for some great cast performances to really shine through in key scenes. The cinematography of the film looks incredibly good; often beautiful shots of the setting are exquisitely captured, while tight scrutinous interrogation scenes are framed up nicely.

Kenneth Branagh, who played Hercule Poirot, makes for a charming lead performance; Branagh really brings forth the more unique qualities of Poirot and develops an interesting internal struggle for the role. Tom Bateman, who played Bouc, is quite an entertaining host/sidekick to Branagh's Poirot; Bateman acts in equal measure an inquisitive audience voice and a debauched man of pleasure. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, who played Biniamino Marquez, is quite the charismatic presence within the cast; while spinning complete lies and fabrication you can't help but enjoy and grow to like Garcia-Rulfo's minor role. Derek Jacobi, who played Edward Henry Masterman, is convincing as the mild-mannered elderly servant; Jacobi has a nice blunt side to his role which leads to some entertaining curt exchanges between himself, Branagh and Depp. Michelle Pfeiffer, who played Caroline Hubbard, lands the duality of her role perfectly; you at times both believe Pfeiffer as the bubbly widow and are immediately hooked when she is revealed to be the vengeance-driven murderer. Willem Dafoe, who played Gerhard Hardman, brings forth one of the better performances in the film; only Dafoe could create a nasty racist professor and strip that persona away to reveal a rather soft-spoken likeable detective character.

However, the best performance came from Johnny Depp, who played Edward Ratchett. In recent years I feel Depp has taken on many franchise roles that have never really been too serious and he hasn't taken a role to really put himself into it. However, Depp as Ratchett is one of the finest performances I've seen from Depp in recent years and I have to say it's a shame he wasn't in the film for longer than he was. There is a very sinister presence about the role when first we meet him, he is incredibly caged and seems like he could turn violent at a moment's notice. Yet Depp does a great job of slowly revealing his character to be much more of a vulnerable role, frightened of the very people around him. This all culminates perfectly in the great exchange between Depp and Branagh where we see some of the acting that sets the bar for the rest of the film.

This is a film that has a slow pace throughout and doesn't lend itself well to making much of an impact, while major plot revelations succeed they don't always feel as important as they should. Sadly, the main protagonist for the film is set up to be quirky and somewhat light-hearted at first; so when the plot takes a darker turn the transition is hard to buy into as an audience member. The ending for the film is a major weak point with the famous revelation that all the passengers are behind the murder coming off as lazy writing. The major reveal feels this way because the Cassetti backstory and the current murder mystery feel very crudely blended together so that you aren't really satisfied with what comes off as a final moment of indecision by the screenwriter. Furthermore, the overall moral message of the feature, which sees the killers walk free, doesn't really sit comfortably with a modern audience and will leave you questioning if this was an adaptation made with it's audience in mind at all. The editing moves the film along at an agonising pace, far too often the feature is filled with scenic shots to block out heavy swathes of time between scenes. The score for the film is utterly forgettable, leaving the feature to craft atmosphere upon it's own and without the usual support of this film technique.

Daisy Ridley, who played Miss Mary Debenham, reveals that beyond her role in Star Wars, she doesn't lend much range to a character; Ridley is unable to present a very expressive performance and winds up being rather boring to watch. Leslie Odom Jr., who played Dr. Arbuthnot, feels a bit too committed to the self-righteous angle of his role; Odom Jr. tends to play his role one of two ways: stern indifference or exaggerated rage. Penelope Cruz, who played Pilar Estravados, feels constantly out of place alongside the rest of this cast; Cruz is incapable of truly connecting with the religious component of her character's role in a manner which doesn't seem far-fetched. Josh Gad, who played Hector MacQueen, doesn't really fit such a stern, serious role and seems out of place at best; Gad doesn't really feel connected to Depp's character either, an annoying quality considering the pair apparently work together. Sergei Polunin and Lucy Boynton, who played Count Rudolph Andrenyi and Countess Elena Andrenyi respectively, provide some of the worst performances of the film; this pair have a chemistry that feels artificial and Polunin in particular makes it look like effort to perform a role. Marwan Kenzari, who played Pierre Michel, is first portrayed as a minor role and should have remained so; when lent extra importance to the plot it becomes clear just how much Kenzari fell into the background. Judi Dench, who played Princess Dragomiroff, has fallen into a typecast trend recently that has done her no favours; an arrogant character to watch who is often notably the tired, forgetful role that Dench seems to have taken a fondness to. Olivia Colman, who played Hildegarde Schmidt, is yet another great performer who feels little more than a background performance; Colman is wasted as a dithering slapstick tag-along to Dench's ailing performance.