PLOT: Detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) must solve a murder while cruising down the Nile on a luxury yacht rented by heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) and her new husband, Simon (Armie Hammer), who is being stalked by a deranged former lover of Simon’s, Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey).
REVIEW: Kenneth Branagh, while clearly delighting in the extravagance of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, seems determined to humanize the famed, fictitious Belgian detective. His first Christie adaptation, Murder on the Orient Express, was surprisingly grounded despite the big-budget and slick production values. His lavish sequel, an adaptation of Death on the Nile, continues that trend. Once again shot in 65mm by DP Haris Zambarloukos, Death on the Nile does away with the camp approach chosen for the last big-screen version of the story (where Peter Ustinov headed an all-star cast), opting instead for a surprisingly downbeat tale despite the starry cast and glorious trappings.
The movie starts with a black and white flashback to Poirot’s early days as a soldier in WWI, giving his moustache a gruesome origin and the detective himself a tragic backstory. While he’s still having fun in the role, Branagh seems bent on digging deeper into Poirot’s psyche this time, giving him a bittersweet dimension and a surprisingly downbeat conclusion that may indeed be his last word on the famed Belgian detective. This is a surprise, as everything about the movie suggests a light and airy confection, although the whodunit turns out to be surprisingly cruel and brutal, with a few grim touches that threaten to make the film a bit of a downer at times.
Nevertheless, Branagh has gone all out trying to make this mystery big-screen worthy, with excellent production design and VFX disguising that they couldn’t shoot in Egypt. The all-star cast is well assembled, even if one of the leads has given the film a lot more trouble than anyone could have foreseen. Indeed, this was initially slated for a 2020 release, only to be delayed thanks, first, to the pandemic and then the now-infamous Armie Hammer scandal, which seems to have ended his days as a leading man. Whatever happened behind the scenes, Hammer’s role appears to have been left mostly intact, with him playing perhaps the most crucial character outside of Branagh’s Poirot, with his Simon a playboy who seems like a walking red herring. In the opening, he ditches his gorgeous fiancee (Emma Mackey’s Jacqueline) for her wealthy, dazzling best friend, Gal Gadot’s Linnet. Everyone thinks he’s a kept man, with Jacqueline pursuing them down the Nile, bent on winning him back.
Gadot, who’s almost always cast in action roles these days, gets to stretch a little as the vulnerable Linnet, and her chemistry with Hammer is surprisingly good. Hammer’s off-screen proclivities make the character unintentionally funny at times, but he’s well-cast as the vacuous playboy and does a good job in the role. As his deranged ex-lover, Emma Mackey virtually steals the show, with her good looks rivalling those of Gadot, and she plays obsessed well. Everyone else is similarly good, with Sophie Okonedo as a blues singer and Letitia Wright as her niece, hired to entertain the ship’s passengers. The latter has a sweet romance with Tom Bateman’s returning Bouc, much to the dismay of his disapproving mother, played by Annette Bening. Rose Leslie, of Game of Thrones, has a small role as LInnett’s maid, while legendary comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders play it straight as an heiress turned communist and her nurse. Finally, there’s Russell Brand in an atypically dramatic turn as a doctor Linnet threw aside for Simon, while Ali Fazal is an unscrupulous business manager.
All of them add up to a memorable cast of characters. Still, it’s Branagh’s Poirot who remains the focus throughout, with him having more of an arc here and a relationship to the case that becomes personal as it comes to its conclusion. Some may not like this grittier take on Agatha Christie, but Branagh is a good Poirot and Death on the Nile, while darker than anticipated, is still a nice bit of escapism, as was its predecessor.
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