Directed By Kenneth Branagh

Starring – Gal Gadot, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Bateman

The Plot – Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot’s (Branagh) vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple’s (Gadot and Armie Hammer) idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short. Set against an epic landscape of sweeping Egyptian desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, this tale of unbridled passion and incapacitating jealousy features a cosmopolitan group of impeccably dressed travelers, and enough wicked twists and turns to leave audiences guessing until the final, shocking denouement.

Rated PG-13 for violence, some bloody images, and sexual material

death on the nile trailer – YouTube

POSITIVES

Similar to being the driving force that his character is on-screen, so too is Branagh’s direction behind the lens, combining jaw-dropping Egyptian scenery with a suave sophistication in style that intoxicates our senses in the backgrounds and foregrounds of every single shot. The wardrobe here is especially reputable, refusing to sacrifice a boldness in color or thickness in texture for the screen as a result of dated concepts, all the while painting each of the characters who don them with an unmistakably palpable range in personality that goes a long way in fleshing out the ideals of their ensuing characterization. On the subject of such, the performances mostly go above and beyond what’s expected from these often-unproven familiar faces, particularly in Gadot, Emma Mackey, and especially Letitia Wright, whose soulful embodiment casts an air of humanity to the often-stuffy surroundings, while giving us the audience someone to latch our trust and investment towards in the air of so many skeptical figures. However, it’s Branagh who predictably steals the show here once more as Detective Poirot, especially in the balance he supplants to the character that can often compliment these tense and cunning investigative tactics with pocketed moments of humorous levity at the hands of his bumbling neuroses. These moments tenderly tickle without fully compromising the stakes or integrity of the atmospheric tension, which is capped off superbly with Patrick Doyle’s echoing score prescribing a layer of ominousness to the isolated sea ship that practically hangs like a cloud overhead of its many dirty secrets. This aspect allows Branagh a tight claustrophobic embodiment that isn’t always duplicated in the scenically expanding visuals but does coherently spark a fuse in the ingredients of so many combustible elements under one roof that consistently blows as a result of inescapable inevitability. Finally, though the occasional hiccup of storytelling diminishes the law of returns on the movie’s mystery, I can say that the predictability factor is anything but choreographed when the big reveal finally surfaces. Even if you’re able to guess the who? in the murderous scenario, the film seems more occupied with the how? unraveling a continuous narrative that surprisingly isn’t always easy for the world’s greatest detective, and all the more challenging for us the audience keeping tabs on each of the characters’ evolving motivations.

NEGATIVES

Even with two hours of generous run time allowance, the script can never nail down the consistency of its execution, with more than a few instances hindering the urgency and intrigue of the shape-shifting narrative. For starters, the mystery itself doesn’t materialize until an hour into the film. This certainly gives us enough ample time to interact and learn from our entire cast of characters, but some scenes test patience by drowning on nerves and the pacing for a bit longer than I would’ve preferred, giving us these heavy-handed exposition dumps in dialogue that all but outlines the particular aspects that the movie wants us to know about every single character. Then there’s the subplots that are only attacked at face value, particularly a backstory involving Poirot as a war veteran, that is only flashed back to at the very beginning of the film, and never again. The intention is to flesh his character out with more meaning than the near ambiguity Branagh supplanted to us in “Murder on the Orient Express”, but between giving Poirot’s moustache an origins story and barely focusing long enough on his love of a lifetime, it makes the intention feel like its heart is in the wrong place and made all the more confusing by lack of continuation. Not all problems are from a thematic matter, however, as the technical merits of confusing green-screen backdrops and lifeless mammal computer generated manifestations washing away the integrity from the sum of its vibrant presentation. This is thankfully only an instance during the first act of the movie, where on-site scenes are traded in for obvious post-production reshoots being done in a studio and made worse by the geographic channeling of their depiction, which often feel like a hanging painting in the background of every character moving in frame. Finally, while the pay-off of the mystery itself might be endearing to some audiences of the film, one thing everyone will agree on is rushed execution of the climax, which omits all air of momentum from the evolving mystery that is continuously building throughout. For my money, the final ten minutes of the film feel no more exhilarating or exceptional than any other throwaway exposition sequence during the previous 110 minutes, serving as quite an underwhelming disappointment for the heart of the film that is supposed to justify the length of the journey.

OVERALL

Though Kenneth Branagh exerts enough love and compassion in both the allure of his direction and the radiance of his cerebral protagonist, “Death on the Nile” leaves its audience treading water with a two-hour run time that takes a bit too long in setting the pieces in motion, and not enough time fleshing out a stimulating pay-off that excites audiences with what’s to come in a possible third chapter in this Poirot saga. Because of such, it fails to reach even the mediocre highs of “Murder on the Orient Express” and wastes away a talented ensemble who are sadly left searching for clues on where it all went wrong.

My Grade: 6/10 or C