Muddle on the Orient Express

Rating: Null/10 (20 November 2017)

First off, I must confess my love of the 1974 Sidney Lumet version as one of my favorite of all times film, but was excited at hearing of the remake and with a wide open mind anxiously awaited the release.
Famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot boards the Orient Express unexpectedly, and when the train is caught snowbound and murder is discovered, he is engaged by the train manager who is his friend to solve the crime before the local authorities come to rescue and perhaps botch the investigation.
I did not like this film. The look of the film is very good, Production Designer Jim Clay and Set Decorator Rebecca Alleway give good train and Costume Designer, the great Alexandra Byrne outfits the cast beautifully (though I do question Mrs. Hubbard's après ski pants, such a woman would don her fur coat if she was chilly). The problem here is a very weak script that for starters does not delve deep enough into the interrogation of the suspects for us to follow Poirot's deductions. A fine cast of actors are given very little to do while the sleuth/hero/director gets a lot of screen time taking away from furthering the plot. We also have, perhaps in an attempt to draw younger audiences, more focus on Star Wars' Daisy Ridley (Miss Debenham), Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr (Dr. Arbuthnot) and Frozen's Josh Gad (McQueen) characters, leaving acting royalty Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Derek Jacoby and Willem Dafoe out in the snow bound cold. We are also given a pair silly action sequences, one a very public fight by a passenger seeking privacy but drawing the attention of a crowd, the other a brawl actually involving Poirot. Again possibly for the younger DC/Marvel audience but Hercule Poirot is not a superhero and does not engage in knock-down, drag-out fights. Opening up some scenes to outside the train removes the claustrophobic tenseness of the proceedings. But the biggest error here is the complete bypass of the concept of the 12 suspects and the allegory of this self-appointed jury to judge a past crime. The central theme of the novel and story is of justice and the combined group action to correct an error in legal justice and all of this is discarded in the reveal. Also the lack of discussion explaining the household of the original crime seems to remove the underlying theme of family or unity in the story. Overall the film is pretty to see, though some of the sweeping vistas could have been removed for plot development, but I suppose that would have not utilized the 70mm experience. Branagh may be a bit too handsome for the odd, little Poirot character and the adding of racial themes with Dr. Arbuthnot adds something new, but changing him from the Colonel to the doctor, who in the source material helps with the investigation seems odd. Save the cash, watch the lush and lavish 1974 version and wait for this one for free TV.