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Murder on the Orient Express, 1974
On an overnight train ride, one of the passengers (Richard Widmark) is killed in the night. But who among the many passengers (and crew!) is the guilty party? With the train trapped due to a freak snowstorm, Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is up against a ticking clock to find the murderer.
Oh, boy do I feel torn on this film. I really loved some parts of it, but struggled mightily with others.
To start with what I loved, the selling point of this film is the extensive cast, with names like Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and Michael York. Everyone seems properly into the spirit of the whole thing, mostly striking the right note between the drama and comedy of the story. I also enjoyed quite a few of the supporting actors, including names I wasn't as familiar with like Jean-Pierre Cassell as one of the workers on the train.
Then there's the plot, which of course mostly owes its debt to the delightfully complex story created by Agatha Christie. We learn relatively early on that the dead man hid some very dark secrets, and Poirot has his work ahead of him sorting out just how all of the passengers fit into the bigger puzzle. This is the kind of mystery where everyone has something to hide, but who is genuinely guilty? To the film's credit, it is not hard to keep track of the sprawling characters, because each of them is given their own moments (especially in their inquisitions with Poirot) to be clearly defined.
I will give nothing away, but if you've read the book or seen any adaptation of this story, you know that the ending is incredibly satisfying and very emotional. I really loved the way that the film chose to portray the "final reveal"--I thought that it was very moving and moody and it was a real goosebumps moment.
There were a few things I didn't love, however. And with Christie's amazing foundation, it would be hard to make a BAD version of this story.
For starters, I felt very mixed about the way that information was visually portrayed. There are two very effective more extended flashbacks that are great. But during the film there are these frequent little flashbacks--sometimes literally just a flash of an image--and I didn't like the editing transition used for them. It felt disruptive.
I was also unsure what exactly was happening with the makeup on the characters. Some of the characters, like Bisset's character, are given a more natural look. But others, like Perkins or Finney, look like they've got five pounds of powder on their faces. It was incredibly distracting for me and frankly confusing.
Lastly, there's a decision in the last act that changes something from the book. On one hand . . . it does sort of work. But it also means losing out a detail from the original story that I thought was one of the most powerful details, and it was a moment I was anticipating that just never arrived.
Pretty good, but for me it's up against the book AND an excellent audiobook version I've encountered. Definitely recommended, though, especially for that final act.
Murder on the Orient Express, 1974
On an overnight train ride, one of the passengers (Richard Widmark) is killed in the night. But who among the many passengers (and crew!) is the guilty party? With the train trapped due to a freak snowstorm, Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is up against a ticking clock to find the murderer.
Oh, boy do I feel torn on this film. I really loved some parts of it, but struggled mightily with others.
To start with what I loved, the selling point of this film is the extensive cast, with names like Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, and Michael York. Everyone seems properly into the spirit of the whole thing, mostly striking the right note between the drama and comedy of the story. I also enjoyed quite a few of the supporting actors, including names I wasn't as familiar with like Jean-Pierre Cassell as one of the workers on the train.
Then there's the plot, which of course mostly owes its debt to the delightfully complex story created by Agatha Christie. We learn relatively early on that the dead man hid some very dark secrets, and Poirot has his work ahead of him sorting out just how all of the passengers fit into the bigger puzzle. This is the kind of mystery where everyone has something to hide, but who is genuinely guilty? To the film's credit, it is not hard to keep track of the sprawling characters, because each of them is given their own moments (especially in their inquisitions with Poirot) to be clearly defined.
I will give nothing away, but if you've read the book or seen any adaptation of this story, you know that the ending is incredibly satisfying and very emotional. I really loved the way that the film chose to portray the "final reveal"--I thought that it was very moving and moody and it was a real goosebumps moment.
There were a few things I didn't love, however. And with Christie's amazing foundation, it would be hard to make a BAD version of this story.
For starters, I felt very mixed about the way that information was visually portrayed. There are two very effective more extended flashbacks that are great. But during the film there are these frequent little flashbacks--sometimes literally just a flash of an image--and I didn't like the editing transition used for them. It felt disruptive.
I was also unsure what exactly was happening with the makeup on the characters. Some of the characters, like Bisset's character, are given a more natural look. But others, like Perkins or Finney, look like they've got five pounds of powder on their faces. It was incredibly distracting for me and frankly confusing.
Lastly, there's a decision in the last act that changes something from the book. On one hand . . . it does sort of work. But it also means losing out a detail from the original story that I thought was one of the most powerful details, and it was a moment I was anticipating that just never arrived.
Pretty good, but for me it's up against the book AND an excellent audiobook version I've encountered. Definitely recommended, though, especially for that final act.