DVD Review: Death on the Nile (2022)

Death on the Nile (2022)
(DVD Death)

Following the success of Kenneth Branagh’s first film outing as Hercule Poirot, Murder on the Orient Express (2017), the actor/director returned to the part for a second sleuthing in 2022’s Death on the Nile. Like Orient Express, Death on the Nile was jam-packed with a large cast of recognizable modern-day film stars, including Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Tom Bateman, Letitia Wright, Sophie Okonedo, Emma Mackey, Armie Hammer, Rose Leslie, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French…and more. The cinematography, costuming and set design are all top notch, as are many of the performances.

 

However, just like Orient Express before it, director Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green have chosen to make major changes to the cast of characters from the classic novel by Agatha Christie – altering some characters names/backgrounds, combining others, and simply excising some entirely. This makes reviewing this film complicated – I’m a Christie purist, and on that level, this is something of a butchering of her story. On the other hand, this is, visually, a beautiful film on screen and the good performances do a lot to salvage the mangling of the original story. But, on the whole, despite loving Kenneth Branagh in pretty much anything else he has been in, he is just NOT Hercule Poirot, and the inclusion of a completely fabricated explanation for his lustrous mustache (connected in part to a tragic love story in Poirot’s past), drops my opinion of Death on the Nile from an 8 to a 6 in my eye. I really wanted to like this film more than I did, so I’m disappointed in the creative choices the film-makers made. However, if you’re not as familiar with the source material, you may find a lot to admire in this beautiful-looking film.

 

(Obviously, you should read the original novel by Agatha Christie. The adaptation of this story as part of the Poirot TV series, with David Suchet as the Belgian detective, was well done — available in the 9th season DVD set. And, while I’m also not a fan of Peter Ustinov’s 6-film stint as Poirot, his version of Death on the Nile is definitely a superior adaptation of Christie’s story, and is also visually sumptuous – fortunately, the libraries have that on DVD and Hoopla streaming.)

 

(Also available in traditional print format.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official Death on the Nile page on the studio’s web site )

 

See Scott C.’s review of the 1974 film version of Murder on the Orient Express in the October 2012 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
See Scott C’s review of the 2017 film version of Murder on the Orient Express in the March 2018 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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