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Death on the Nile Movie Review

Death on the Nile is a 2022 mystery film directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Emma Mackey, Armie Hammer and Gal Gadot among many others. It’s a pretty good adaptation.

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“How many great stories are tragedies?“

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This movie was postponed three different times and now when it’s finally here, I have to say that Branagh outdid himself and made a better flick than his previous effort that I also liked and found quite underrated. First and foremost, this new adaptation mostly stays true to the spirit and the main storyline of the novel, which I highly appreciated, and the plot points and characters that he changed still did not significantly alter or diminish the narrative.

Branagh is terrific as Poirot once again. He was particularly outstanding channeling the more heartbreaking side of this iconic character in this unusually emotional performance. Yes, he is still overly proactive and a bit too loud, but the accent, the look and the overall behavior were true to the character.

But let’s talk about that origin story that Branagh gave him. You can make a case that changing or adding to the Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot canon is welcome, but the problem here lies in the ideas, not the execution. It was simply unnecessary to make Poirot a WWI veteran and the whole reason for his having a mustache felt too silly. He is also given a girlfriend and then a potential love interest, which again did not sit well with me. These scenes were elegantly crafted, but simply unnecessarily tacked on to a story that did not need it.

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Thankfully, the rest of the film is faithfully adapted, very well crafted on all levels and actually surprisingly engaging, lively and fun, which is an area where this 2022 effort bested the previous 1978 version. The racebent characters were carefully incorporated so as not to feel too modern, resulting in a film that thankfully retains its old-fashioned charm and roots even with these current trends added.

Sophie Okonedo, in fact, was so wonderfully striking and just fun as Salome Otterbourne that I would actually say that she’s the standout of all the actors here. Letitia Wright is also terrific as Rosalie and it was hilarious listening to her rant about the obnoxiousness of Poirot. Other standouts include Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French as these companions turned lesbians. Saunders was particularly funny as this very embittered Communist.

I’d expected the worst from Gal Gadot in an important role of Linnet, but she was actually pretty solid and well cast when all is said and done. Annette Bening was the weakest link in an otherwise great cast. She’s a great actress, but she overacted way too much toward the end. Armie Hammer was just fine, but it was wonderful seeing Emma Mackey of ‘Sex Education’ fame as Jackie. She was superb here and hopefully she will become a bigger Hollywood star after this.

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This Death on the Nile wasn’t filmed on actual location, which bothered me, but thankfully the CGI is much better than usual for this type of movie. The ship looked especially luxurious and the scenes in Egypt were pleasantly adventurous. The score was stupendous while the camera work is once again among the technical highlights. The camera moving elegantly and briskly in the interrogation scenes was a particularly inspired choice that elevated the material to a very cinematic status.