Death on the Nile (2022)

Movie Info

Take a trip to Egypt with Poirot

Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) finds himself on a luxury ship on the Nile at the request of heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot).  Linnett has recently married Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) and is fearing for her life.  Along with Simon’s jilted fiancée and Linnet’s former friend Jacqueline “Jackie” de Bellefort (Emma Mackey) that is dogging their every step, she doesn’t trust the people around her.  When tragedy strikes, Poirot finds himself on a case…and the murderer might not be done with one corpse.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, Death on the Nile is murder mystery.  The film is a sequel to Murder on the Orient Express from 2017, and an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1937 novel.  The film’s release was delayed due to COVID-19 and was released to mixed to positive reviews with a decent box office return.

I saw the 1978 adaptation of Death on the Nile starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot…but I remembered nothing about it.  Going into Death on the Nile, I questioned if I really forgot Death on the Nile or if there were some lingering memories.  Due to aspects of the plot, a ******spoiler alert****** is in effect for the rest of the review.

A happy honeymoon?

The movie is a mystery, but it is a solvable mystery.  Throughout the film, there were moments I suspected the truth (though there were many threads of the story that I didn’t see).  I don’t know if it was seeing the film over twenty years ago, but it felt there were many red herrings throughout the movie that were a bit too obvious along with clues that were un-missable (like the missing paint).  It still is a nice classic style mystery that Branagh tries to infuse with some modern interpretations.

The cast for Murder on the Orient Express was a who’s who and Death on the Nile tries to follow-up to some success.  It brings Branagh as Poirot back and makes him a bit more flawed by diving into his past (which was vague in Christie’s novels).  Gal Gadot is the doomed Linnet while Armie Hammer just was coming publicly under fire for his past relationships when the movie was released.  Emma Mackey is the obvious killer (who is deliberate plant) and returning Murder on the Orient Express alum Tom Bateman doesn’t get to return for a third outing (I like Annette Benning as his mother).  I also liked Letitia Wright and Sophie Okonedo interaction with Poirot since they too see themselves as outsiders among the group.

Do you need an origin for Poirot’s mustache?

The movie looks good, but it looks very digitally rendered.  The recreation of Egypt in the late 1930s is good looking, but it is also extremely clean (and not overburdened with tourists).  The flashbacks to World War I are also well done and provide a unique difference to previous Poirot stories.

Death on the Nile isn’t like a Knives Out or Glass Onion, but they do have the same birth.  The expansive casts, the twisting mysteries, and the enigmatic detectives are ripe…but they are two sides of the same coin.  It is a fun contrast to watch the two together and it is worth a trip up the Nile.  Death on the Nile is followed by A Haunting in Venice in 2023.

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Murder on the Orient Express (2017)