Murder on the Orient Express is the second adaptation, following the 1974 classic, of Agatha Christie’s famed novel and is led by director and star Kenneth Branagh (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Henry V). The movie follows world-famous detective Hercule Poirot, played with heroic fun by Branagh, as he attempts to uncover the murderer of Johnny Depp’s Edward Ratchett on the Orient Express and how this case relates to the death of young Daisy Armstrong years before. This is a classic murder mystery story and, like the 1974 version, features a star-studded cast. Led by Depp, Daisy Ridley, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, and Willem Dafoe, among many others, every member of the cast brings their A-game to this Christie adaptation and make every character feel alive. This movie marks the best Johnny Depp has been in years, as he feels invested in this movie and is trying instead of simply phoning it in like he has in numerous movies since the first Pirates movie.

What makes this movie different from most at the cineplex is that it feels like a classic movie. It is deliberately paced with the audience allowed to piece together the mystery themselves without it being fed to them. The movie works on almost every level until the resolution. This story has been talked about ever since Christie first published it because of its solution. It is one of the most iconic endings in the history of entertainment, but this film handles it poorly. While some will be able to coherently understand what is going on in the final 20 minutes of the film, most will walk out of the theater semi-confused by what just happened. The conclusion to the mystery is curiously jumbled as everything else in the film was carefully planned out but the end feels rushed.

Even though the ending is mishandled, Murder on the Orient Express is a classic tale that is told extremely well by one of cinema’s finest artists, Branagh, and is a solid Agatha Christie adaptation.

Murder on the Orient Express: 7.5 out of 10

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