Death on the Nile (2022) Review

Following the success of 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express Kenneth Branagh has returned to Agatha Christine’s popular Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.

In 1938 Poirot (Branagh) is on holiday in Egypt when he runs into his old friend Bouc (Tom Bateman) at the Pyramids. This chance meeting leads Poirot to become a part of a wedding party for Simon Doyle (Amie Hammer) and wealthy heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot). As they tour some of Egypt’s most famous sites Linnet fears for her life because Simon’s ex-lover, Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey) keeps finding them.

Murder on the Orient Express was a hit, it made $352.8 from a $55 million budget, and it made a locked room murder into a lavish production. The 2017 version of Murder on the Oriental Express ended with sequel bait because Poirot received a message asking him to investigate a murder on the Nile. However, this sequel bait was not followed up on, Death on the Nile was a standalone film, and watching Murder on the Orient Express shouldn’t be a prerequisite to new viewers.

Death on the Nile was a film with a lot of issues, so it’s best to start with the positives. Death on the Nile was a great-looking film. It started with a black-and-white prologue that was set in World War One and it was an impressive sequence when the Belgian army launch a surprise attack against the Germans through a cloud of gas. When the film moved to Egypt there were some lavish shots, particularly when the party visited Abu Simbel.

Like its predecessor, Death on the Nile was brimming with star power and acting talent. Branagh continued to make a solid Poirot. He was observant, methodical, and had less obsessive tendencies as he did in the previous film. Actors like Armie Hammer, Emma Mackay, and Letitia Wright impressed, and Russell Brand was surprising as the aristocratic doctor. Hammer is now considered a problematic actor he performed with a convincing English accent and play the doting husband. Mackay was able to play a character who was both seductive and unhinged as she continues her pursuit of the newlyweds.

Other cast members weren’t as convincing. The most obvious was Gal Gadot. Gadot has name recognition because of her role as Wonder Woman and she’s clearly beautiful, but as an actress her range has been limited and she came across as wooden. Her delivery was stiff, and she wasn’t convincing when there were heightened emotions, like when Linnet pleaded for Jackie to be removed from the boat. Jennifer Saunders played one of the most annoying characters in the film because she played a socialite turned communist and was constantly banging on about the plight of the workers. She came across as a caricature instead of a character.

The biggest issue with the film was the sense of excess. The budget increased to $90 million, and the filmmakers wanted to show they spent the money. There were massive sets that were built in London, lots of picturesque aerial shots of the Karnak sailing down the Nile, and there were lots of fancy camera shots and CGI effects. A lot of it was unnecessary since Death on the Nile was a locked room mystery: most of the story takes place on a boat. A great example of this excess was a moment when the camera tilts from the sky to below the waterline to show a big fish eating a smaller fish. It was special effects for the sake of special effects.

Death on the Nile was a film that felt like it wanted to pad itself out. It opens with two prologues, the aforementioned World War One sequence, the second was in a nightclub in London. As an individual piece, the World War One sequence was well done and the aim was to show the love between Poirot and Katherine (Susannah Fielding), but the prologue came across as nothing more than showing the origins of Poirot’s moustache.

The London sequence aim was to show how the rift between the Doyles and Jackie started because Jackie and Simon were engaged and had a passionate, sexually charged dance before Jackie introduces her fiancé to Linnet. Poirot was at the same club, as well as two other characters who were on the river cruise – it was too coincidental.

Death on the Nile spent a lot of time with Poirot and the wedding party. It takes over an hour for the titular death on the Nile to happen. This sums up one of the big problems of the film, a long, drawn-out first half. The aim was clear, it was meant to set up the characters and their potential motivations for murder. It was a drag as the audience had to wait for the murder.

When the murder does finally happen the pace picks up considerably. There was a sense of urgency as the bodies start to pile up and Poirot showed off his investigative skills. It made for an interesting murder mystery, even if the early scenes in London made the identity of the killers obvious for people who haven’t read the novel or seen other adaptations.

Death on the Nile focused on the theme of love: the filmmakers bludgeoned audiences around the head with it. The central conflict was the love triangle between Linnet, Simon, and Jackie and how it drove the plot. Poirot was still grieving over Katherine which led to him struggling to let another woman into his life, even though he had a spark with the blues singer Salome (Sophie Okonedo). Love was also a driving force for Bouc and Rosalie (Wright) with Bouc trying to gain the courage to stand up to his mother, and two other characters were in a secret relationship.

Death on the Nile was a film that was too big for its own good. The attempts to expand the story and the setting resulted in a bloated film.