British Actress Blog

Murder On The Orient Express (2017)

Score: 5/10

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Stars: Daisy Ridley, Willem Dafoe, Kenneth Branagh.

The Orient Express

Daisy Ridley

Synopsis: When a murder occurs on the train he’s traveling on, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case.

Review: A detective by the name of Hercule Poirot ( Kenneth Branagh ) is recruited multiple times to solve deferent crimes. On board the Orient Express, a murder has occurred and Hercule is asked to solve this very tricky crime. Apparently this movie has been remade many times before. This review will focus on the 2017 movie.

Mary Debenham

Daisy Ridley

Daisy Ridley does a great job but what did we expect? She is playing a young British woman, how can she mess that up when she herself is a young British woman? The other actors (Hollywood has-beens) play some what offensive American stereotypes. I thought that we as people was evolving out of this kind of thing but I guess I was wrong. Yes I know, this film is supposed to be some kind of period piece but come on. Kenneth Branagh does a convincing job in this movie. A calm, cool, and collected analytical thinking man. Its sad but no matter what, I see the Green Goblin every time I see Willem Dafoe and I know I’m not the only one. Some scenes makes you wonder if this is a train full of mentally ill people. If Daisy Ridley was not in this movie I wouldn’t have finished watching it.

Good Job!

Daisy Ridley

The film focuses on the question ’what is justice’. Its not just what is it, but also ‘why’ is it. We have a criminal justice system but why do we have it. The film goes deeper into this concept by showing you the pain of the victims of the crime. Why do we abide by the many deferent rules of justice throughout time its self? One might say ‘to protect women and children’ and or ‘to keep order so that our society can be a safe place’. In this movie the law is no where to be found other than with the ‘people‘ who I guess are like the jury. The movie goes through the long and arduous task of asking everyone in the whole train one question after another of what they saw or what happened. Yes I am extremely familiar with this kind of task. I learned it in college but it is boring as heck when you put it in a motion picture film. I think Hollywood is in love with the ‘idea’ of forensic science, but they don’t actually know what it really is.

passable

At Best

The cinematography is perfection. Lighting, backgrounds, set dressing, and wardrobe are all perfect. This film looks really good! Seriously, its beautiful. The scenes outside with mostly natural lighting looks so much better than inside the train cars. So the film starts you off with a mystery that is being solved. I think this was a smart move because for the middle of this film is very boring, and I mean boring! Not an action film at all. I can see why the studio wanted to cast big name actors because this really is anemic at times. Well over one hour into the film and I was ready to stop watching the movie. The promotional material for the film was better than the film its self. They where smart for casting Daisy Ridley, based off of her Star Wars popularity. They really needed it. I hate to say it but the whole movie for me was very obvious how it was going to end. The film is passable.

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