New twist on Murder on the Orient Express

IT’S one of the most beloved crime stories of the last 80 years. Now it’s got a whole new movie treatment with an incredible cast.

MURDER on the Orient Express is one the most iconic mysteries in crime fiction.

A classic Agatha Christie closed circle mystery of one murder and 12 possible suspects on a trapped train, the 1934 tale has persisted because of its twistiness, impossible ending and moral ambiguity.

Yet there hasn’t been a proper cinematic adaptation since Sidney Lumet’s 1974 version starring Albert Finney as the idiosyncratic, famously moustachioed detective, Hercule Poirot.

Forty-three years later, Kenneth Branagh has stepped in to remake Murder on the Orient Express, both as director and in the role of the Belgian private eye.

Branagh’s grand, Shakespearean sensibilities lend an ambitious scale to the production, not least of which was because he shot the film on big format 65mm and released in 70mm.

For the uninitiated, when Poirot is called back to London from Istanbul at the last minute, he unexpectedly boards the Orient Express train, taking the berth of a no-show. Among the passengers in his carriage are a Russian princess (Judi Dench), a schoolteacher (Daisy Ridley), a missionary (Penélope Cruz), an American socialite (Michelle Pfeiffer) and a doctor (Leslie Odom Jr.). The train is abnormally full for the winter trip.

That’s quite the facial accessory.

On the journey, he’s approached by an American businessman, Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp), a crude kind of fellow with an air of crookedness. Ratchett says he’s received threatening letters and wants to hire Poirot to protect him. Poirot, being a moral absolutist and upstanding gentleman, promptly and forcefully refuses.

That night, Poirot (all tucked in with his moustache mask) is wakened by noises in the cabin next door, Ratchett’s cabin. The next morning, Ratchett is found dead, killed by multiple stab wounds.

An avalanche has also trapped the train atop an aqueduct — there is nowhere to go and no one who can help.

Recruited by the Orient Express representative on board, Bouc (Tom Bateman), Poirot sets out to solve the mystery of who killed Ratchett.

The cast assembled by Branagh, which also includes Willem Dafoe, Olivia Colman, Josh Gad and Derek Jacobi, is top pedigree, and it can’t be overstated the gravitas that brings to Murder on the Orient Express. The rhythm of each interrogation scene between Poirot and any of his suspects, as they all try to deceive, is ably handled by these true professionals.

Pfeiffer in particular is captivating, bringing so much depth to a character you initially write off as frivolous. Her return here and in Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! and The Wizard of Lies are reminders of how much her presence has been missed these last few years.

And while the more diverse cast is a nice update for 2017, not all the modernisation worked as well.

No one plays contemptuous quite like Judi Dench, well, except maybe Maggie Smith.

Understandably, Branagh wanted to take full advantage of the 70mm wide shot and moved several scenes off the train, including a chase sequence down the aqueduct scaffolding, an interrogation in the snow and the resolution in a nearby cave with an odd Last Supper-esque tableau.

While those scenes looked spectacular, the venture away from the confines of the train detracted from the claustrophobia and the immediate jeopardy present in Christie’s novel and Lumet’s version. Though it generally adheres to the beats of the original story, those external excursions were probably designed to bring a kinetic energy for a modern audience more used to smash, bang and flair but it only dilutes the tension of the mystery.

And some of the CGI is a little obvious.

That’s not to say that Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express isn’t a beautifully crafted production — the costumes and set designs are sumptuous and there is a brilliantly filmed sequence early on when you follow Poirot through the train, across its many carriages.

If they choose to turn this into a franchise with more adventures, as it has been suggested, it would certainly attract a returning audience.

But you have to wonder if it didn’t lose a little of its soul by eschewing restraint and going all-out.

Rating: 3/5

Murder on the Orient Express is in cinemas today.

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