Rose Leslie, Letitia Wright, Tom Bateman and Russell Brand show up, too. Sophie Okonedo is radiant as a blues singer named Salome, and Annette Bening fits in well as a persnickety artist. Legendary comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are reunited (although their aristocrat and nurse characters are given a new brow-raising secret). He has, to his credit, done a better job casting this time around. What Branagh does isn’t even an admirable impression of them, but a growling, menacing reinterpretation. Finney and, especially, David Suchet cornered the market on Poirot in their films and TV series throughout the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

It was obvious that this was the wrong part for him five years ago. Should-be erudite, funny Poirot dramatically hurls a meat cleaver at one point, and later cries as Branagh films one of many close-ups of himself. So much for mystery! Can the movie’s mood be lifted after trench warfare? In order to give the actor some meat to gnaw on, screenwriter Michael Green has invented a downer backstory in which Poirot valiantly fights in World War I and gets a face injury after a bombing that leads to his iconic mustache. How ‘Death on the Nile’ became ‘every publicist’s worst nightmare’ Armie Hammer and Gal Gadot in “Death on the Nile.” ©20th Century Studios/Courtesy Everett Collection The detective may be pompous and effete, but his narcissism is nothing compared to that of Branagh. He’s once again taken a perfect whodunit and mangled it beyond recognition into some sort of a mummified thriller.īesides directing at a languid pace, he cruelly returns to the role of Poirot, which he first afflicted himself upon in “Orient Express.” It fits him like a size-0 wrap dress. A killing takes place onboard, and it’s up to Poirot to catch the fiend before it’s too late.īranagh has killed again.

The film is set during an Egyptian river cruise, on which a new wife (Gal Gadot) begs famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) to come along because she believes her husband’s unhinged ex is stalking her. Now comes The Mystery of “Death on the Nile,” based on another of Christie’s top titles. Rated PG-13 (violence, some bloody images, and sexual material).

Death on the nile christie