Murder on the Orient Express, Movie Review

Murder on the Orient Express was written in 1934 by Agatha Christie. In 1974 there was a movie, and a radio show in 1992. Later were television adaptations and even a computer game in 2006. Although this story may not have the richer film history of others it is an iconic tale of a puzzle mystery and is widely known for its unique plot. When dealing with such a well-known story, it's not the story we become so much involved with, but how the story is told. Even if you have not been directly involved with any of these earlier pieces, the iconic nature of this tale and characters has influenced many other works. So, excuse me if there seems to be some points that may be considered spoilers.

The movie Murder on the Orient Express’s screenplay was written by Michael Green and directed by Kenneth Branagh (who also plays Hercule Poirot) present a movie worth seeing. They both, along with the rest of the cast have experience in presenting their crafts.

This star-studded cast takes their characters and brings each of them to life on the screen. Each character has a lot of backstory needing to be brought out to make the mystery work, something difficult to do in a two-hour film.

Each character needs to be developed. They are developed. We are given how each person is connected to the victim and how they are connected to each other. If you don’t already know the story this can lead to a suspenseful setup. Mystery readers are used to being given the clues, sifting through them to determine which are the pertinent ones and those that are the misleading red herrings.

Our puzzle box mystery is confined to events and people on one railcar. All of the suspects are present and we just need our grand detective to sort through the clues to solve the case. As with any mystery of this type, we as the audience want to be able to solve the murder with Poirot. I give a lot of credit to those involved in the production for what is presented, but the movie falls short of being spectacular because of the requirements put onto a mystery of this type.

By allowing the development of the characters, the pacing of the movie is slower. This was still enjoyable, but felt longer because of the suspense is not there as we build to the climax of revealing who committed the murder.

There are other elements worth watching for. I enjoyed the imagery used in the Murder on the Orient Express. The use of glass throughout the movie provides a wonderful sense of continuity to the theme of the story. The different states of the glass and how it is used provide levels of depth, separation, fracturing, multiplicity, that build on the depth of the story.

Kenneth Branagh and Michael Green are already working on Death on the Nile as a follow-up for Murder on the Orient Express(which was hinted at the end of the movie).

Overall

Murder on the Orient Express is a good movie adaptation of the book. The style of story is where I feel it ends up lacking, very much in the same manner as other adaptations that require this level of complexity in the characters. There just isn’t enough time to present this much information in one sitting. If you want to get the full feeling of this tale, you need to read the book.

The movie is of average appeal with additional credit given for the how the characters are photographed and the imagery of glass.

I give Murder on the Orient Express 3 out of 5.

Also published with Utah Geek Magazine.

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