Review : ‘Death On The Nile’ : Love, Lust, Betrayal and Revenge!
Agatha Christie, famous for 66 detective novels, created a fictional detective Hercule Poirot. This Belgian detective solved many mysteries including the one in Murder On The Orient Express. The movie with the same name was directed by Kenneth Branagh. He returns as Hercule Poirot to solve another murder mystery in #DeathOnTheNile. Death On The Nile is Agatha Christie’s one of the most loved works. It revolves around love, jealousy, betrayal and revenge. It’s obvious that Kenneth Branagh’s both these films are compared and his earlier murder mystery Murder On The Orient Express scores more than Death On The Nile. He struggles to do full justice to Agatha Christie’s ‘Nile’ and the slow paced narration doesn’t invoke enough curiosity in the viewer.
Death On The Nile starts with a black and white sequence which is a back story for explaining Poirot’s double layered moustache. The story is about a wealthy heiress Linette (Gal Gadot) who is surrounded by her well wishers whom she doesn’t trust. Her childhood friend Jacqueline (Emma Mackey) introduces her to her fiancée Simon (Armie Hammer) with whom she’s in love. But Linette goes weak in her knees seeing Simon and steals her best friends boyfriend and gets married to him. The jilted lover Jacqueline feels betrayed and seeks revenge. On Linette and Simon’s honeymoon she follows them and being felt intimidated Linette hires detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) suspecting and anticipating an impending murder. The lovers decide to hire a Karnak steamboat to cruise through the Nile in Egypt.
They are accompanied by a large wedding party consisting of a Communist godmother and her nurse, an attendant, a cousin who throws bad vibes, a singer and her niece who is in love with a son who has a very difficult to please mother. Linette feels safe as no outsider could pry on them, comes Jacqueline on board to spoil their party. And expectedly Lynette is murdered. The detective Piorot comes into action and he finds that each one present on board have a reason to murder Linette. The body count on board keeps increasing. Despite suspect’s alibis he manages to solve the mystery.
Christie’s novel has previously been adapted as a Hollywood film in 1978, starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot. But this remake doesn’t create much enthusiasm due to the slow pace in the first half. When the actual story starts unfolding one had already lost interest in the narration. But it’s not boring though and if one will avoid comparisons, one can enjoy it throughly. The films also looks a bit disappointing despite all the grandeur. The Pyramid and Sphinx scenes look CGI created and the sunset on the Nile too looks artificial. In acting department Gal Gadot scores displaying variety of emotions. Armie Hammer justifies his selection for the role and delivers moderately. Emma Mackey is convincing in two shades of her role of a lover and a jilted lover. Bollywood actor Ali Fazal features in a substantial role and does justice to it. He has even managed the Brit accent very well. Other cast too lend support equally well. No doubt Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot is excellent. The music adds to the narrative and the lusty, sweaty dance in the beginning brings in enough steam. But ‘Death On The Nile’ gathers steam a tad late hence drains the curiosity out of the viewer.
Rating: ***