With the exception of a wonderful scene in Rameses II’s tomb, there is no genuine sense of place. The Poirot we are accustomed to does not chase suspects as if he was an action hero. Poirot at 100: the refugee detective who stole Britain's heartĪs with Murder on the Orient Express, Branagh again has the film veer into absurd action sequences. In this version he is gruff, unfriendly and often mean. He gets to know each suspect, asks them seemingly irrelevant questions and makes them lower their guard.

While the Poirot audiences are used to is peculiar, pompous and obsessed with order, he is above all else charming. There is no care given to these suspects or the importance of several clues.īut the biggest crime with Branagh’s portrayal of Poirot is the lack of charm. It is an interesting narrative device but, in the end, it is still all about Poirot. This theme about the extremities heartbreak can drive us to permeates throughout all the suspects. We get an absurd origin story for his moustache. Rather than just a mystery, this film functions more as an exploratory narrative into Poirot. We aren’t just comparing these films to the novels themselves but other screen adaptations – the portrayals of Poirot we are more accustomed to. Reactions to Branagh’s adaptations of Christie complicate this picture even further. How close is the adaptation to Christie’s original puzzle? Do the clues “fit together” in a similar fashion?

The murder mystery is ultimately a game where you have to guess the killer before the detective does.įor many fans of Christie, adaptations are judged according to the degree to which they conform to their source text. Key to the Agatha Christie narrative – on screen and on the page – is the puzzle. Her mysteries have been a staple of the big and small screen ever since. The first film adaptation of her work was The Passing of Mr Quinn in 1928. The author of 66 detective novels, 14 short story collections and six bittersweet romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, Christie has sold over two billion books. The first cinematic adaptation of a Christie mystery.

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