Murder on the Orient Express (2017) – Film Review

For the studio to take Agatha Christie’s classic book “Murder on the Orient Express” and adapt it again in the year 2017 feels slightly like a stretch of 20th Century FOX looking for a property to launch that they can get ahold of to get a cash flow. Going in with lowered expectations after the middle of the road reviews gave me pause of expecting anything great. The cast they put together for this film was great, I do have to say. Though the film does have its pandering to create a franchise it is a very well crafted piece of cinema from a production, cinematography, casting and directing standard.

I have to say that Kenneth Branagh does a wonderful job of creating the world that Agatha envisioned in her book. Though Kenneth does have a lead role as Hercule Poirot and is the director — he does a great job to ground the film through his perspective. His character is the most established out of all of the cast. Each of other individual characters don’t have enough clear motivation to be considered the killer of the murder victim. When the train leaves from Istanbul and it has a very limited amount of passengers and crew that make it not as believable the film is about another family murder that happened in the United States many years ago it starts to look a little outlandish. I wouldn’t blame the writing of Agatha Christie’s work but more of the screenwriter not being able to twist it to fit the world they were building with the film than stick to the source material.

I can only see a world as it should be. It makes an imperfection stick out like the nose on your face.

I would say that the film does have its positives in creating a great detective world to play in that Kenneth Branagh can return in other sequels based off the material out there. I would see another one which they hint to at the end of the film. It has a great Turner Classic Movie feel but with a modern look to it that doesn’t abandon the era of which the film takes place. My only advice would be for the future sequel is to make the narrative work within a realistic setting that doesn’t seem out of place of the ongoing story.

Would I recommend people stream this if they haven’t seen it? Yes, I would. I definitely recommend that people take a watch of it when it becomes available. It won’t be the most memorable movie of the year but you will appreciate the amount of artistry that was put into it to make it classic and contemporary.

6.5/10