A decent, but forgettable Sunday afternoon flick

Rating: 7/10 (3 December 2017)

Murder on the Orient express is a forgettable Sunday afternoon flick. There is nothing special about it, there are no stellar and breathtaking performances, there are no nerve wrecking scenes or spectacular music. This is a movie I would recommend if nothing else is on the TV (and I do believe that was the intention).
Two things must be distinguished from one another. The first is the directing and acting, and the other the story. The first is spectacular, the other is a cliché to the point of non belief.
Branagh's direction is surgically precise and to almost every point flawless. His effort to make the movie look and feel like a novel was achieved as one can actually see where some chapters end and others begin. He has no unnecessary prolonging of scenes or dialogue, the execution is "to the point," bright and concise. The viewer is never bored or tired as Branagh switches from scene to scene, depicting character after character, and the background changes simultaneously as the characters and scenes. There are also interesting camera angels and long one-shot scenes that make the movie visually very interesting. But there is much more to a movie than just technical and directorial precision.
The actors had a really ungrateful job. Most of them had just a scene or two in which the were expected to execute their roles and lines to utmost perfection because no second chances were given. That does explain the all star cast consisting of Dench, Depp, Dafoe, Pfeiffer, Cruz, Jacobi, Gad etc. All of them did their jobs respectively but most of their performances lacked heart and or soul (with the exception of Gad who was really quite good at his role and Pfeiffer who had a little more to say than the rest of the cast). The most disappointing were Cruz (whose performance was way over the top) and Odom Jr. (who was not fit for the role at all).
Most of the discussions were pointed at the performance of Branagh himself. His take on the legendary Poirot was, different than what we are used to. NO comparison will or should be made. All of the actors who portrayed Poirot had their views and ways they approached the character, and so did Branagh. As his directing, his acting is flawless, precise and his ability to switch emotions and portray different thoughts just with an eyebrow or gaze is amazing, not to say a bit disturbing. Even though he is not what we are used to as Poirot, he really did an amazing job and stands out among all the other brilliant actors with which he worked with on this movie.
The story is, another problem. Considering that the novel was written about 80 years ago, the standard that we are used to in murder mystery thrillers today is far beyond what we are served here. It is unfair to criticize the screenplay when the source material hasn't aged well, and if one pays close attention to all of the clues, at a certain point somewhere at the middle/last third of the movie it is really not that difficult to put all the pieces together. The conclusion lacks a climax because the viewers are still under the impression of what we today consider cliché, that the grand reveal becomes anticlimactic. And therein lies the greatest problem. No emotions, no thrills, no WOW factor. Just a bland, expected conclusion that leaves one a bit disappointed. Again, that says more about the aged novel and not the screenplay.
All in all, entertaining and suitable for more than one viewing, but unfortunately forgettable. I cannot shake the feeling that not much more than that was the general idea of the movie.