Better than 1974. Yes it is.

Rating: 9/10 (16 November 2017)

This is the greatest whodunit of all time, and the 1974 movie - directed by Sidney Lumet, script by Paul Dehn - did it full justice. Albert Finney's Hercule Poirot made Peter Ustinov's previous performances seem lightweight (and surely inspired David Suchet's approach in the TV adaptations). Could it be bettered?
Yes, it could. This version, scripted by Michael Green and directed by Kenneth Branagh, is gorgeously lavish, with stunningly digitalised locations and a train with more glamour than the Chrysler building. And a fairly lavish cast, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Penelope Cruz and Johnny Depp. Branagh himself plays Poirot; his usual half-Hitler moustache has grown to coat-hanger proportions but the accent is the one we're used to. The previous murder of little Daisy Armstrong remains the bedrock of the mystery, although this is dripped into the story in fragments. There's a new prologue, with Poirot solving a theft beside the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem (digitally inserted into a Malta backdrop), and the unravelling of the threads is more dramatically paced than it was in 1974.
Some of the cast, now as then, are short-changed (Derek Jacobi and Olivia Colman don't get a lot to say). Michelle Pfeiffer has the meatiest part and is superb. Wendy Hiller had recently played Queen Mary in 1974 and invested the ancient Russian princess with all of Mary's Teutonic imperiousness. Judi Dench recycles her Queen Victoria to similar effect here.
It sort of spoils it that most of us know how it's going to end – it would be a heresy against Agatha Christie to change the final scene (staged here with a slight nod to Da Vinci's Last Supper!) – but it only spoils it a tad. I envy those who see it without knowing whodunit. There's a teaser for DEATH ON THE NILE at the end. I can hardly wait.