Actor/director Kenneth Branagh's 2017
remake of Murder on the Orient Express was a surprise hit, so Hollywood
let him adapt another Agatha Christie/Hercule Poirot novel with Death on the
Nile. Much like Branagh's earlier Christie adaptation, this film will
likely entertain murder mystery buffs.
While in Egypt, Poirot finds himself
drawn to the wedding party of a rich heiress (Gal Gadot) and her new groom
(Armie Hammer) in Egypt. The groom's former fiancée (Emma Mackey) was also the
heiress' former best friend and has crashed the party as part of a months-long
stalking campaign. To the surprise of no one familiar with Christie or Poirot,
murder happens.
The script (by Michael Green) does a
good job of sticking to the basic beats of Christie's novel (and the 1978 film
adaptation) while not just being a rote repetition of those two works. There's
enough novelty here to entertain people who know the story, and the plot is
accessible enough that people who are Christie novices (or who haven't seen the
2017 Murder on the Orient Express) can still follow and enjoy it.
Hopefully, moviegoers will show this
one the same support they showed 2017's Murder on the Orient Express and
keep Hollywood's mini-mystery revival going (also seen in Knives Out, The
Little Things, and A Simple Favor—all worth seeing).
