British filmmaker and actor Kenneth Branagh’s second adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel “Death on the Nile” has an entertaining and campy feel.
Camp is an aesthetic style that makes something interesting because of its bad taste and ironic nature according to a May 7, 2019 BBC article.
Released on Feb. 11, “Death on the Nile” is directed by Branagh, who also stars in the movie, and is based off of Christie’s most daring travel murder mystery novel where an alluring honeymoon party cruise along the Nile River is shattered by the murder of Linnet Ridgeway, a young and stylish woman who seemingly had everything.
The film, set in 1937, begins in a black and white noir style showing the history of Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, played by Branagh.
While it felt like the director tried to break the record for longest first act of a movie, Branagh also spent a substantial amount of time experimenting with different visuals.
The monochrome cinematography faded away and went into another direction with impressively shot scenes of a glamorous club.
The mesmerizing club scene, which introduces viewers to the main characters, includes a gorgeous wardrobe with characters seductively dancing to jazz music.
I wanted to know who the people in the shot were but as the film progressed and the characters’ personalities showed, it all went downhill.
The film has an ensemble cast, meaning there are multiple characters rather than one central protagonist making it difficult for viewers to connect even a little bit with all of the individuals.
The hard part of producing a mystery film isn’t solving a crime, it’s keeping an audience entertained; I found myself bored waiting for someone to die.
Linnet is played by Gal Gadot and as much as the movie tried to convince me that she was alluring, every line she said sounded like something from a Super Bowl halftime commercial.
There were times I giggled because of her line delivery. Her face was inexpressive, making it hard to connect with the character even when she died.
It doesn’t help that her partner throughout the movie, Simon Doyle, is played by Armie Hammer, who I can’t take seriously.
His acting was mediocre and I was mostly engrossed in the mesmerizing world Agatha Christie created; I could separate the allegations of sexual assault from his craft.
Hammer was accused in 2017 of sexually assaulting a woman who said she met Hammer on Facebook in 2016 when she was 20 years old, according to a March 18, 2021 Variety article. Hammer’s attorney denied the allegations, according to the article.
Emma Mackey from Netflix’s series “Sex Education,” single handedly carried the movie as Jacqueline “Jackie” de Bellefort. From the minute you see her to the last shot she’s in, she’s captivating.
Jackie was Linnet’s old friend and the film’s main antagonist.
Jackie introduced Linnet to Simon in the jazz club at the beginning of the movie and told Linnet she was mad about him and he was her “true love.”
In the next scene, Linnet and Simon are married and Jackie becomes the psychotic heartbroken ex.
Mackey, who played one of the craziest characters, showed her derangement as tears bubbled in her big brown eyes as she described the heartbreak of Simon choosing Linnet to sleuth Hercule with a wicked smile.
The camera panned down as she slowly pulled a gun half way out of her purse and described how there’s a reason the heart is the organ associated with love because the minute the heart stops beating, we die. I remember thinking, “Oh shit.”
Seeing the gun and the tears in her eyes made me believe she could do something so irrational but so monumental.
The first act takes place in Egypt but nothing was filmed on location, which was obvious. One scene had a character standing at the base of an obviously fake pyramid and I remember thinking to myself “What ‘Saturday Night Live’ set is this?”
It was a genuine pleasure to figure out the mystery. Mysteries are pure entertainment so I can make fun of the acting and sets while still having an enjoyable time.
Even though I solved the mystery halfway through act two, the final scene between the ensemble cast had my whole theater row silently giggling while the characters pointed tiny guns at different people.
But those giggles quickly turned into one collective gasp as we watched what unfolded –which I’ll leave a mystery– at the end of the movie.
The final gasp was worth sitting through the two hour movie.
I’d give this movie three out of five stars simply because it was entertaining. I had a laugh, I solved a murder and I went on a cruise. What more could I ask for?
