You might not expect me discussing this movie.
But as some of you know I am a member of a society that (re)publishes the works of a deceased Belgian writer, Jean Ray. While he wrote a lot of works in the fantasty genre, he also had various detective novel series going like the 'Harry Dickson' series (over 170 stories, well known in French speaking countries)
That in itself along with the fact that Poirot is a 'Belgian' detective sent me and some club member on the trail of 'Orient Express'. One of us had seen 3 earlier movie versions, along with the double episode baqed on the book in the David Suchet starring show from the 90s.
The movie gets off to a good start in portraying the epoch the surroundings and Poirot's quirks.
The story sticks close to the novel, but there's some extra physical action thrown in. The director also made sure it's not a claustrophobic movie inside a train (which it actually is in the book), by adding extra outside shots (landscape views and some light CGI) and oinventive camera angles inside the train
If you are familiar with the book you know there are a lot of characters. They are introduced rather briefly (it had to stick to a 2 hour running time I guess(, but tbh it isn't much different in the book.
It's Agatha Christie so some of you will need some suspension of dusbelief for the denouement lol.
If the plot is not too your interest as it develops (or for those who know the plot) there's still the star studded cast. They do reasonably wrll, but tgey are all campy performances. Brannagh himself overdoes it a bit too as Poirot, but I guess that goes along wih the character.
The set design and costumes are lavish.
It's a good attempt but it lacks some punch in that you are not really sucked into the hunt for the killer.
I'd say this is a 6/10 movie for me, it's definitely not a must see. Good family movie for the holidays though.
PS : Good to see Michelle Pfeiffer in a movie again. Her performance was over the top though.
If anybody's seen it I'd be interested in your opinion.
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