Movie Review: Death on the Nile

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent adaption of Agatha Christie's classic murder mystery. 

This movie is old fashioned in the best way possible. In many ways it feels like this film could have easily been taken from the 1960's or 1970's. It has the same focus on the internal conflict of the characters and slower but completely sure of itself pacing that the best films from that era did. Yet at the same time, this movie does not feel in anyway like a rehash of the 1978 adaption of the same source material. This movie makes some changes that give the film a different feel from that previous adaption while still keeping everything that made the source material so compelling. While of course if you have seen the previous movie or read the original book you know who done it, this movie still keeps you glued to the screen. Part of this is due to Kenneth Branagh's masterful directing. Every scene is as Hercule Poirot would say methodically planned. Everything about the pacing and the visual look of the film is so perfectly thought out and that gives the film a charm that I found irresistible. The cast in this movie is also perfect. This movie provides Gal Gadot and Russell Brand with some of their finest roles. Though this character existed long before this movie, the role Gal Gadot plays seems tailormade for her and fits everything about her screen presence like a glove. Russell Brand on the other hand is nearly unrecognizable and it is easy to forget you are watching him. He plays this unusual role really well, showing he may be more versatile as an actor than many of us give him credit for. Yet the show is stolen by Kenneth Branagh, himself. He is clearly having the time of his life playing the world-famous detective and enjoying each of the eccentricities. Yet at the same time he plays the more serious side of this character with a real sense of depth and humanity. 

On the downside there is a lot of dialogue here that is simply too on the nose. While I don't except a film like this to be subtle, it also does not need dialogue that clearly spells out everything a scene is trying to say. This is especially true when it comes to Poirot's character arc. Though we know what the character is going through early in the film, time and time again the dialogue just simply tells us what we already know. However for how great so much of this movie is that fault can easily be forgiven. 

If you are a fan of murder mysteries than this movie is highly recommended.