Death on the Nile

Kenneth Branagh returns as Director and wearer of fabulous moustaches in his second outting as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Death on the Nile sees Poirot in Egypt and a guest at the wedding of Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) and Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot). However proceedings are upset when Doyle’s former fiancée Jacqueline De Bellefort (Emma Mackey) aggreived at been dumped for her former friend interrupts proceedings. In order to escape her stalking the Doyle’s hire the Karnak a paddle steamer, which takes them and their wedding guests, the usual Christie style group full of secrets and motive, and of course Poirot, on a journey along the Nile. As they head off on this trip there is a murder and Poirot is called into action and of course all onboard are under suspicion.

I did want to enjoy this more as I do like Branagh as Poirot. But this second outting sadly is less than the sum of its parts. A well assembled cast, an Agatha Christie story and a sumptuous set. But sadly it seems to lack much of the fun and energy that was there to enjoy in Murder on the Orient Express.

Firstly it’s slow from the very beginning as we get a lot of Nile before we get to the death. We also suffer from one of the challenges that come with large ensemble casts of characters, we barely get to know any of them. And even for those not familiar with the story, the mystery is pretty well sign posted and you spend quite a lot of the film wating for it to reach its destination.

There are things to enjoy, Emma Mackey steals most of the scenes she was in, Sophie Okonedo and Annette Benning are reliable and watchable as is Branagh again as Poirot. And the final act does zip along and has the pace and intrigue lacking from the rest of the film. And it is big and bright and the humour when it does appear raises a smile.

Unfortunately though Death on the Nile does fall flat lacking the fun and energy of its predecessor. It moves too slowly and is all surface with little depth to engage you. Which is a pity, because Branagh as Poirot is enjoyable, but he needs to investigate why this doesn’t quite work.