As with any Kenneth Branagh film, the spectacle is everything.
Back in 2017, I walked into the theater expecting to be awed and swept away by Murder on the Orient Express. While the visuals were certainly stunning the movie felt so oddly paced and the mystery so unsolvable that I left disappointed. Flash forward five years (and one global pandemic later) a movie that I probably never would have chosen to see otherwise was one of the few in theaters that I was not actively disinterested in. At least I knew it would be beautiful and I resolved to not expect much beyond that.
How strange then that I should come away thinking nearly the opposite I did about MotOE. The opening gripped me truly. Starting in a gritty WW1 battlefield was NOT how I expected this to begin and for someone with a low tolerance for gore I wondered if I’d even be staying, however, it introduced the theme of the film beautifully, established our Main Character’s skills, and kept you on the edge of your seat with all the twists.
Then we jump 23 years to London 1937 and again it surprised me, though not in as positive a way. Having taken an age-diverse group to see this film I found myself embarrassed by the veritable “sex on the dancefloor” scene that continued for at least 5 minutes. While our MC was present the things I thought they were using to foreshadow ended up being nothing and his purpose there ended up being pointless. His witnessing of this event really had very little to no actual effect on the plot.
Then we jump to Egypt and the scenery really shines, except to my surprise one scene where it looked so surreal that it was obviously a green screen background. Of course, you might say it’s all green screen, and yes, much of it probably is, but my problem isn’t with that. It’s that the promise of these movies is the beautifully immersive experience they are promising and at least once they pushed it too far. It felt fake.
There were lots of great hints and clues being laid throughout the middle along with another almost sex scene that was extremely borderline for this pg-13 film. (Clothed or not I wouldn’t want to be explaining the specific type of Role Play the characters were doing to a 13-year-old.)
What I really appreciated about this film, is that if you have a keen eye and ear you can identify the murderer within the last half of the middle and I was gratified there was an actual perpetrator as opposed to MotOE where “everybody did it”!
What was not so great was the HOW. From the minute our MC starts revealing the truth on screen things started feeling off to me. First, with how the characters reacted and how little time we had to process it. But honestly, this was probably done on purpose because second was how the murder happened turned out to be physically and realistically impossible.
Oh well though, I suppose I can’t expect amazing spectacle, good pacing, AND a water-tight plot from what boils down to a “cozy mystery” adaptation. It was at least entertaining, thrilling, and even shocking at times. Also, harmless enough except for the main characters who kept trying to jump each other’s bones in uncomfortably public places. But all in all my main takeaway is good acting, some funny one-liners, and definitely better than the Orient Express.
