Thinking Outside the Box

Rating: 8/10 (13 November 2017)

In 1934 world renowned detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is vacationing on the Orient Express as a means to relax his mind. Unfortunately, a man turns up murdered by some­one on their Calais Coach, and rather than let the local gendarmes at the next station flub their investigation, he decides to solve it him­self and hand it to them on a platter.
Based on an Agatha Christie novel by the same name—she being a whiz with words—the title bears considering. It seems to distance itself from any dualism: i.e. not life and death, but murder; not on and off but merely on; not Orient and Occident (East and West) but Orient only; and Express with­out any Impress.
Timothy Materer writes on *James Merrill's Apocalypse* that "Merrill struggled with the limitations of dualism  In a journal of 1954, he addressed the way dualities interfere with our perception of reality: ¶"' in all circumstances we are deluged with interpretations, simplifications, falsifications of our experience, by reference to non-existent poles, life & death say, or any of the convenient dualities. We think in these terms, see life as Life—and at once it is simpler, slightly evaporated, on its way *away* from reality'." (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2000, 12).
An example of this in a train novel is the western *Night Passage*, by Norman A. Fox: "Harbin asked,'You know him, Utica?'
"'I ought to, Curly. And I think I can tell you why he's here. He's been following me around for a long spell, trying to talk me out of the trail I ride. Now he's caught up with me again. Isn't that it, Grant? You spotted me from the train, so you came after me. You see, Curly, he's my brother. I'm Lee McLain—and he's Grant McLain.'
"Harbin said, 'The hell you say!'
"'That's it, Curly. The McLain tribe balanced up even—one owlhooter, one honest man.'
"'Lee and Grant,' Harbin said. 'You're funnin', Utica'
"'We were Missouri folks, Curly. Missouri was a split state while the war was on, so Pappy straddled the fence. He named his first son for Grant and his second son for Lee.'
"'This is straight, Utica?'
"'Straight as a string. Tie a can to him and send him down the mountain, Curly. We'll likely be shaking the dust of this place by sunup. It won't matter if he talks about this hide­out. And he won't talk any­way. He always tries to keep me in the clear.'
"'I dunno,' Harbin said with a shake of his head. 'This takes some thinking.'" (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1956, 136–7)
It's not a matter of us and them, but of us and us. Maybe. It's going to take some thinking. And if this example is any indication, the Orient Express detective has his work cut out for him.
The color scheme of "Murder On" is amorphous. Only two colors are used much: blue and red; and these but sporadically. There are blue panels on the train, and red lipstick, lights, and wine. Beyond that it's muted earth tones. The whole movie is a waste of a scenic journey, the diverse characters as bland as an unbroken field of snow.
Then we encounter the "husband hunter" Caroline Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer) who sports a purple dress (mixture of blue & red) and suddenly a single character amidst all the suspects is flagged, at least visually. But alas, the dancer, too, having blonde hair and red lip­stick wears an orange garment (combo of yellow & red). Since she's eliminated as a suspect on account of lacking the strength to knife the victim with such ferocity, the camera's attention to Mrs. Hubbard must have some significance other than her guilt or innocence. Her purple dress materialized right after dialog about the combining of two elements; that's all we can say.
However, there is noted a common saying in "Night Passage" about the combining of disparate elements: "A forty-four barrel on a forty-five frame./ Never bet aces in another man's game." The last line would indicate a winning hand that the card player for some reason doesn't want to play, but it's a reach to apply it here. This movie doesn't even mention the saying.
There is, though, a throwaway line at the end of "Orient", about the detective's next assignment, which also shows up in the "Passage" book. Poirot is being sent to "Egypt, right on the bloody Nile." In "Passage" one of the brothers involved in a three-way love triangle is said to have visited "a river in Egypt called de nial."
Poirot is portrayed as one smart detective, right up there with Sherlock Holmes, I'd say. And he's not bashful about his accomplishments. It's like (Eccl. 8:1) "Who is as the wise man? And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed."
This movie is well constructed, and it keeps us guessing until the end. I think Agatha Christie should be her own genre, because those novels all bear her stamp. However, this one is similar to a western I mentioned above, so perhaps one should keep an open mind. I liked Christie but haven't read but two of her novels. Maybe I'll read some more after seeing this movie.
The actors also included Judi Dench, Leslie Odom, Jr, Penélope Cruz, Johnny Depp, William Dafoe, Josh Gad, and Daisy Ridley. They all worked well together and got along off-set, too.
Don't see this one for the scenery as it's hard to even tell when the B&W flashbacks occur, the colors are so muted. If you're looking for a detective yarn, though, this one will fill the bill.