Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

 ☆ ☆ ½

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) – K. Branagh

I went into this Agatha Christie adaptation thinking it wasn’t going to be too challenging – more of a TV mystery comfort food sort of thing – but unfortunately, it is much worse than that.  Although director Kenneth Branagh has lined up an array of top-drawer stars (Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Daisy Ridley et al.), they are almost all wasted in small unrewarding parts. Branagh gives himself (as Hercule Poirot) the most screen time but his moustache tends to overshadow his acting; I didn’t think that he established the character any better than David Suchet, despite the bigger budget, bigger canvas.  Even worse, the plot itself is botched – we barely get to learn each character’s backstory by the time we find Poirot lining them all up and revealing the solution to the crime.  Instead much time is wasted trying to make the film feel like an action flick (that chase after Josh Gad) or to use the 65mm screen with what feels a lot like CGI landscapes behind the fabled train.  Give it a miss.