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Movie Review: 'Murder on the Orient Express'

An Agatha Christie novel made into a movie (again)? This is my review of 'Murder on the Orient Express.' There will be spoilers (just a heads up).

By Azlyn FugatePublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Found on Flash Film

*Disclaimer: as stated above, there will be spoilers in this review. You've been warned.

Coming from a huge bookworm family, when I saw the previews for Murder on the Orient Express, I got very excited. I've read Agatha Christie novels before, but I've managed to go my whole life without reading this one.

While I was walking through my local mall with my best friend of 16 years, I saw the poster saying that it was playing. We both agreed that we should watch it. A few hours later and we're sitting in the movie theater. Like most of the other movies I watch, I always look up who the cast is. I try to avoid reviews, summaries, and anything like it.

The cast for the movie is fully loaded, from Daisy Ridley (known for her role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as Rey) to Johnny Depp (known to most for his roles in Edward Scissorhands and Pirates of the Caribbean). The acting was great by most of the actors and actresses. If you like a healthy mix of up-and comers and old school actors, then you will like the cast of this movie.

The story line was great, if you like mystery novels. It reminded me very much of "Clue" minus the Tim Curry commentary. The writing of the actual movie was not so good. Like I stated above, I've never read this story by Christie so it could be her fault.

During the movie, Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) gets on the Orient Express among his 13 other passengers. Shortly after the Orient Express starts its travel, an avalanche causes the train to derail. Shortly after, Rachett is murdered after being shot down by Hercule after he asks Hercule to be his personal body guard. He was stabbed 12 times, twice on the upper part of his body and 10 more in a frenzy in his abdomen. Hercule Poirot, being the "best detective in the world," sets out to find the murderer.

Poirot starts to investigate who had murdered Ratchett. As the case unravels, he comes to find that "Ratchett" was known as Cassetti and that he was the one that had kidnapped and murdered a young child, Daisy Armstrong. When Daisey's mother found out about what had happened, she went into early labor, and neither her nor the baby lived. Daisy's father sent a letter to Poirot, asking him to find the person that had done it. Much to his dismay, by the time he got the letter, her father had already killed himself.

While the movie continues to unravel, you start to question who could be the murderer, or maybe that was just me. While I was thinking it was Michelle Pfeiffer's character, Mrs. Hubbard, it was all of the people on the train. While the story unfolds, you find out that all of the people on the Orient were somehow related to the Armstrong family. Poirot, when he finally cracked the case, walks over to the group of guilty murderers. They are sitting very "Last Supper-ish," and he tells them that the only way to get away with the murder is by killing him also.

Mrs. Hubbard grabs the gun and points it at Poirot. She then points it at herself and shoots. While there are no bullets in the gun, it pleases Poirot enough to keep his mouth closed about the murder. As soon as the Orient got to its destination, Poirot leaves the train and all of the people on it. He states that he told the police that the attacker had fled out of the window while the train was derailed. He then goes on to tell them that they will have to live with their choices, and they will all be judged when it is their time.

As Poirot gets off the train a man comes up to him. The man says that he was there to pick up the Detective known as Hercule Poirot. Poirot says, "He's on holiday." And while the man looks very confused, Poirot asks what he needed him for. The man says that he's needed in Egypt for a murder on the Nile, which leads me to believe that there will be a second Agatha Christie movie in the making. For those of you who do not know, Death on a Nile is one of her books, written in 1937.

I really liked the movie. Would I watch it again? Yes. Would I recommend it for friends? I don't think that they would be able to fully appreciate some of the "easter eggs." One that I did not state earlier was that I saw and extreme similarity between the Daisy Armstrong murder and the Lindbergh baby murder. Seeing as the Lindbergh baby died in '32 and Murder on the Orient Express was published in '37, I'm led to believe that that was what Christie was going for.

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About the Creator

Azlyn Fugate

I'm a 19 year old hopeless romantic, I go to CUP for English and Criminal Justice and I'm going to be opening a book store in Texas soon.

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