Death on the Nile

I'm giving it one more star than Murder on the Orient Express, mainly because Death on the Nile is not just "another Hercule Poirot mystery", but it's a Hercule Poirot mystery that is about Hercule Poirot in addition to the search for the murderer. Kenneth Branagh and co. tried that last time, but it's only here that it works – this time I was as interested in Poirot as I was in how the case was developing, and I didn't really care that the case was notorious and I already knew the killer. With Death on the Nile, Branagh's Poirot becomes the second best Poirot, and the film's conclusion, its last shot, is already one of the most memorable cinematic moments for me. (19/03/2022)

I enjoyed this movie in the cinema as opposed to the recent Murder on the Orient Express, which left me completely cold because it was simply a pretentious flamboyant parade of stars with no added value. The filmmakers did not shy away from somewhat tweaking the plot of Death on the Nile. So even though I already knew the end of the story quite well, I ended up being slightly surprised by its development, where the tone of the movie became indiscriminate and somewhat pessimistic. Thumbs up for that. (18/04/2022)

An extremely precisely executed whodunit, where I also experienced a rather strange and welcome paradox – I had not read the book and did not know the outcome, but I guessed the culprit quite soon after the fatal act, and it didn’t bother me at all and it didn’t seem like a weakness, but an intention, because Branagh wonderfully focuses the attention on the process of accumulating clues rather than deepening the mystery. Throughout the film, we’re almost completely aligned in our knowledge with Poirot, who sees or hears everything (and when he lies drunk outside the action, he hears everything from innocent and reliable witnesses) and we deduce with him – and can also suspect with him – who is behind everything, but concentrate only on finding the evidence scattered all over the mise-en-scène (or rather, missing from it – the red paint, the lost scarf), which the script brilliantly and rhythmically signifies, as well as the traditionally convoluted mutual past of the actors. Guessing the ending, then, isn't the film's fault, but perhaps its dominant feature – that it can be this entertaining and subtle just in the way it connects the viewer to the investigating protagonist (even emotionally, thanks to the framing prologue and epilogue) is something I really praise Kenneth for. Very nice visuals and great cinematography, which is equal to Steven Spielberg's works in the sophistication of space. I’m already looking forward to my impressions after a second screening. 90 % (13/02/2022)

Unusually personal considering the character of Poirot, however the pre-title sequence in the trenches is one of the most powerful. It's actually takes a while to get going, it's just that Kenneth Branagh has the whole thing so beautifully shot and voiced that there’s not so much as a though of boredom. The seemingly drawn-out exposition in particular starts to make very good sense later on, and once the anticipated "whodunit" kicks in, it picks up in a big way. All in all, this is a really well done mainstream piece that respectably draws on its classic source material while being utterly professional and ultra-modern in its portrayal. If Branagh delivers another Poirot case in a similar style a few years from now, I’m definitely on it. [75%] (10/02/2022)

Hercule Poirot for the second time, and another borefest. Murder on the Orient Express is one of the few films where I fell asleep in the cinema, and Death on the Nile has a similarly leisurely pace, but thankfully it didn't cost me my cinema ticket. Nothing happens for an hour, nothing at all. They introduce uninteresting characters in an uninteresting way with uninteresting dialogue, but fortunately in a fairly attractive setting (Egypt, the Nile) – a minor plus point compared to a Train – but I still found it woefully underwhelming. I don't find Hercule Poirot interesting as a detective, he doesn't have any gripping, revolutionary investigative methods, nothing to stand out, he's an intelligent gentleman doing his job but it doesn't add much to the viewing experience. The wait for a murder here is longer than the wait for a payday, and on top of that it's just the usual uninterestingly rendered murders in every other B-grade crime series. I don't see how a fan of Se7en, Hannibal and the like, where everything from the murders to the actual investigation works, can be satisfied with the outcome here. I was counting on at least the final reveal, where an interesting twist might come, but even that is readable from the opening minutes, even without knowing the source material. For me, the prototype of the most useless and least attractive crime drama that the world may see. Only pensioners can be entertained by this. Decent visuals, fine actors, but everything else completely passed me by both cinematically and as a viewer. Story 3/5. Action 0/5, Humour 2/5, Violence 1/5, Fun 2/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 3/5. 4/10. (12/07/2022)