Death on the Nile film review: 'Polished and bright, beautifully shot'

Hucknall writer and film enthusiast Nick Archer will be reviewing the latest blockbuster films being screened at The Arc Cinema.

This week he gives his verdict on Death on the Nile.

Hot on the tail of the critically acclaimed Belfast comes the second of Kenneth Branagh's films, long-delayed and finally released Poirot vehicle, Death on the Nile.

A Hollywood adaptation of a story that's over 85 years old, even a literary classic by the legend that is Agatha Christie, is never going to be an easy sell. Branagh's 2017 Murder on the Orient Express did surprisingly well, raking in over $350 million worldwide and as a result, earned itself a direct sequel and an audience waiting with bated breath.

The illustrious Belgian sleuth returns to the big screen with his equally famous moustache and is given a new lease of life and even some hint of character depth in the form of Branagh himself. This time Hercule Poirot finds himself embroiled in a homicide in Egypt, theorising and deducing his way down the north African waterways with his trademark caustic aplomb.

Death on the Nile is as sumptuous and decadent as the cuisine served to the aristocrats upon the riverboat, Karnak. What is, arguably, a made-for-TV whodunnit, is presented with all the cinematic splendour and pizazz a well-financed Hollywood production promises. It is polished and bright, beautifully shot with an authentic yet romanticised design that lets you appreciate the art-deco world of the 1930s.

The ensemble cast is one you'll recognise from film and television on both sides of the Atlantic. Russell Brand, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French perform alongside the Hollywood royalty of Annett Benning, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer and Letitia Wright. Game of Thrones' Rose Leslie and Sex Educations' Emma McKay also represent the home team and hold their own well amongst the established titans of the film industry.

The film itself is well-presented and fluidly told. Adapted and written by Michael Green, the screenplay has been stripped back and the original cast efficiently culled as to not bloat its 2-hour runtime. The film's characters are in several cases composites of those in the novel, blending two into one to create a more streamlined story, and allow the audience to keep track of suspects with more ease. Tom Bateman returns from the first film, his character Bouk taking the place of another unused player to achieve a sense of continuity in this Poirot Cinematic Universe. There is a tense opening scene that operates as a window into the tragic backstory of Poirot himself, and indeed an origin tale of the moustache that is so famous, it almost requires its own spin-off series.

The issue with bringing a classic novel, that although considered a literary great and can be slow, stuffy and at times obtuse, is presenting it to a 21st-century cinema-going audience who have grown accustomed to their murder thrillers being slick, pacey and complex. The first half of the film succeeds well in doing this. The rising action towards the inciting murder has moments of tension and intrigue, yet begins to gradually fall a little flat in the second half, perhaps owing to the writer and director being constrained by the source material and its inescapable raison d'être.

That said, it is an enjoyable and lavish 127 minutes of gentle escapism, much like the film before it. Sit back and enjoy the cruise, piece the clues together and, assuming you're not already familiar with the story, see if you can solve the case before the great Poirot himself.

Death on the Nile is still being screened at The Arc Cinema in Hucknall over the next few days. For details of timings, see here.