Death on the Nile
A sumptuous return for Poirot, with a glittery cast, gorgeous set design, and a take on the classic mystery that will satisfy any classic Agatha Christie fans in the audience.
Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh), the greatest detective in the world, is on vacation in Egypt when he runs across his old friend Bouc (Tom Bateman) and his mother Euphemia (Annette Bening). The duo invite Poirot to a soiree for honeymooners Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) and Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot), attended by Salome (Sophie Okonedo) and Rosalie Otterbourne (Letitia Wright), Linnet’s maid Louise Bourget (Rose Leslie), Linnet’s American financial advisor Katchadourian (Ali Fazal), wealthy communist sympathizer Marie Van Schuyler (Jennifer Saunders) and her nurse Bowers (Dawn French), and Linnet’s former fiance Windlesham (Russel Brand). When the party is crashed by Doyle’s former fiance Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey), a woman hellbent on revenge against Doyle and Linnet, the party absconds to a boat on the Nile, sure that they have left her behind. Alas, de Bellefort appears on the boat when new guests are brought on board, and almost immediately after her appearance, a tragedy befalls the patronage of the paddleboat. As more bodies continue to fall, Poirot must work out who the murderer is before they touch back on land; a tough challenge, particularly when nearly everyone aboard has a reason to want the beautiful heiress Linnet Ridgeway dead.
This is the second outing for Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot, and it’s pleasing to report that in this iteration, Branagh really nails the portrayal of Christie’s most famous literary detective. He luxuriates in the personality quirks that make the mustachioed Frenchman tick; from his self-grandiosity, to his shyness and self-consciousness. Branagh brings more laughs in this iteration than he did in Murder on the Orient Express, and in doing so lightens up the piece. He is a famed and capable detective (in his own words, the best in the world), but also socially uptight, emotionally unavailable, and a lot of fun. Christie’s books always have him with a sidekick, or a companion, and here we see a lot more of that buddy-buddy relationship he typically has with a compatriot in his novels; despite the dropping of his actual sidekick from the book, and a little retcon to reduce the number of cast members in this piece.
Other than the lead, the rest of the cast (as you would expect) is uniformly fantastic. Gal Gadot in particular stands out, with a remarkable performance as the young heiress. Hammer, Mackey and Bateman are all fantastic sparks of energy in the film, and the older cast (even Bening as the infuriating Euphemia Bouc) are stalwarts of convincing, engaging performance. That’s good, because the film necessarily is telling a tale that is close to a number of other recent stories we have seen on big and small screens; this is an absolutely classic tale, and has been ripped off in everything from BBC iterations to Adam Sandler Netflix films. The fact that this feels fresh, even for an Agatha Christie fan who has read a number of her novels including this one, is a fantastic sign; and that comes down to the direction, and the performances across the board from this cast.
Visually, Death on the Nile is a sumptuous, extravagant affair. With gorgeous panoramas of period Egypt, including some incredible interiors, ancient ruins, and river splashes, it’s a real visual feast. The costuming is fantastic, if at times a little unbelievable for the period, and even on the river boat the cinematography never fails to add a level of engaging creativity to the film. This film bucks the gritty trend of recent years in the crime and murder-mystery genre, and gives us a beautiful, OTT who-dunnit that is at once conniving and enjoyable; sure to thrill both newcomers to the story, and those who’ve read the famous novel before.
