Death on the Nile – Film Review

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot’s (Kenneth Branagh) Egyptian vacation aboard a glamorous river steamer turns into a terrifying search for a murderer when a picture-perfect couple’s idyllic honeymoon is tragically cut short. Set against an epic landscape of sweeping desert vistas and the majestic Giza pyramids, this tale of unbridled passion and incapacitating jealousy features a cosmopolitan group of impeccably dressed travelers, and enough wicked twists and turns to leave audiences guessing until the final, shocking denouement.

After the release of 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, was there honestly anybody who was campaigning for a sequel to be made? I don’t think so. The film was met with a largely negative reception from both critics and audiences alike who found the murder mystery film to be extremely boring and bland.

But, I was willing to give director Kenneth Branagh another chance. Agatha Christie’s source material is so unbelievably rich and full of juiciness to the point where I was willing to give the filmmaker the benefit of the doubt. Maybe, for some reason, Orient Express was just super hard to adapt.

Well, sadly, he failed again. While Death on the Nile is most definitely an improvement over its predecessor, the film is still a largely boring, uneventful, and all-too-familiar story that takes way too long to get to the interesting bits. Some of the twists here are genuinely clever, but by the time they’re revealed, you’ll have already checked out of this movie.

One thing that was amazing about this film’s predecessor that’s even more amazing this time around is the cast. Seriously, there are so many A-list actors in this cast it’s not even funny. Tom Bateman is wonderful here, as is Gal Gadot in the role of Linnet “Linnie” Ridgeway-Doyle.

Of course, you also have director Branagh in the role of Hercule Poirot, who delivers an outrageously charismatic and likable performance as the film’s detective lead. I was also quite happy to see Sex Education star Emma Mackey get a crucial role to play here as well.

Together, the cast is stellar and they’re practically flawless throughout. The problem with the film isn’t them, but rather, the script. If you have watched any sort of murder mystery film before in your life, you’re probably not going to find this one too investing or challenging.

But what’s even sadder is the fact that this movie just doesn’t have a personality. The best murder mystery film of all time in my opinion is Rian Johnson‘s Knives Out. Not only was it insanely interesting and challenging, but it also had style to it. It was hilarious and even heart-pounding at times.

Death on the Nile is not any of those things. Branagh has tried to adapt Agatha Christie’s classic novels twice now and with both, he has proven that he doesn’t know how to execute it well enough. Is this movie awful? No. Not at all. But it’s also nowhere near as good as it should be. Oh well. Better luck next time.