Film Review: Murder On The Orient Express

Directed by Kenneth Branagh and based on Agatha Christie‘s train-set 1934 whodunnit, Murder On The Orient Express centres on the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh). When a passenger is murdered in his compartment aboard the Simplon-Istanbul Express, Poirot has to work out who did the dirty deed on the snow drift-stalled train.

Rating:

There’s nothing like a good murder mystery, and the classic book that this film is based delivers everything perfectly. So when I saw the cast list for this adaptation, I was supperrrr excited. I love Kenneth Branagh as a director and an actor, and every member of the cast was another reason to get excited about this film.

But it just didn’t have the same feel to it. There wasn’t enough mystery or suspense, for me, and certain things were made a little too obvious. It’s one of those films where you come away from it thinking “meh”. It definitely wasn’t a bad film as there’s a lot to like about it, but it just didn’t grip me in the same way that the book did. Then again, I chose to read the book first as I wanted to read the twists rather than see them onscreen, so maybe that, in turn, ruined my viewing of the film. But that was my choice to make, and I’m glad that I read the book beforehand.