With how a lot of mainstream films have been collecting dust while the pandemic kept mucking up the release schedule over the last couple years, this film arguably has gone through the worst aging of any film caught in that shuffle. Between when filming wrapped up in December of 2019, and its official release in February of 2022, at least four of the actors in this ensemble film have become embroiled in controversies. Actual Cannibal Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright’s ‘vaccine scepticism’, Russell Brand’s descent down the conspiracy YouTube rabbit hole, even Gal Gadot’s nauseating cover of Imagine (which, in her defense, she has since admitted to being… out of touch, to put it mildly); this is the kind of PR clusterfuck that could end up burying a film in release limbo indefinitely, COVID or no COVID.
Not that I'm holding any of that against the film myself. It’s rather unfair to hold Kenneth Branagh or indeed any of the other cast members responsible for actions that not only weren’t even of their own doing, but took place quite a while after the work itself was finished. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more than a little hilarious thinking about this four-car pile-up in hindsight, but… I have no other way to say it: This is a situation where separation of art from the artist absolutely applies. Hell, this isn’t even a new phenomenon for this specific series, given how controversial the casting of Johnny Depp was in Murder On The Orient Express. And that’s also taken on new life considering new information regarding his and Amber Heard’s… disastrous relationship, and how the film itself framed the death of his character in an ultimately positive light, as part of the story’s larger examination of the concept of justice.
I’m bringing all this up because, this early into 2022, it’s the kind of production snafu that threatens to overtake the film itself in terms of sheer interest, more so than possibly any film to come in the next several months. But honestly, as someone who went into this thinking that it would pale in comparison to Branagh’s Belfast, and who wasn’t that into Orient Express to begin with, I walked away from this very surprised by the results. Like, I think I liked this more than Orient or Belfast.
Much like with Orient Express, I went into this as a complete newbie (to the point where what little I thought I knew about the story going into it turned out to be entirely inaccurate). Unlike with Orient Express, however, the film doesn’t presume that the audience would be familiar with the source material already. As a result, all the plot developments and twists, and especially the more emotional moments, make the right impact to sell the story as is, not just as the latest version of said story. The pacing is a little odd, reminiscent of Peter Berg’s work in the 2010s where it’s closer to a two-act structure than a three-act one, but credit to Michael Green and especially the cast for making each and every plot beat work to the film’s benefit.
Michael Green as the writer in particular deserves praise for this, as his adaptation of the story lets him do a mulligan on his previous attempt at a singular thematic throughline in Orient Express (there being the concept of justice), with this film’s numerous ruminations on love. It echoes quite a few of the sentiments behind his work on Blade Runner 2049, looking at the ways it can affect people and their relationships with others. The various unrequited romances, the love triangle between Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, and Emma Mackey (like with the opening dance sequence… goddammit, even with everything that’s come out about Armie, him and Mackie together are scorching), not to mention the commendable dynamic between Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French as a socialite-turned-socialist and her nurse respectively. And while I’m talking positively about the cast, Russell Brand is probably the most normal he’s ever been in a movie as the resident doctor.
And then there’s Branagh himself as Poirot, and bloody hell, he gives as much to this performance as DP Haris Zambarloukos once again gives to the stunning visuals. His overanalytical thought patterns are still very much present, but between the World War I opening scene and how his own relationships (both past and present) influence his actions, it’s a much more emotive take on the character this time around. While the de-aging effect in said opening scene can be a bit distracting (as it pretty much always is when it’s used in films, just putting that out there), it sets up not only his own place within the larger love story being told, but also manages to turn what had been one of his recognisable and simultaneously laughable attributes and turn it into something downright heartbreaking. No spoilers on that front, old story or not, because it is quite intense in how it plays out and rings through the rest of the narrative.
So… yeah. This is a very good murder mystery flick. It does a fine job of balancing the cold detective work with the warmer and emotionally-driven motives of everyone on-screen, Hercule Poirot included, while the film craft and initial storytelling approaches of Orient Express have been refined to bring out more of what must have made Branagh himself so passionate about bringing this world to the big screen. It’s quite unfortunate that this film is likely to be stuck in a whole new kind of limbo, given all the behind-the-scenes shit that has taken place, but on its own, it’s still highly entertaining and, dare I say it, worth checking out.
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