Punctuation: ★★★
Address: Kenneth Branagh
translators: Kenneth Branagh, Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan
Premiere: 9/15/23
It’s worth wondering how many more adaptations Agatha Christie’s stories need, but in its favor it must be said that it is at least slightly more enjoyable than the two films with which it shares the saga. ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (2017) and ‘Death on the Nile’ (2022). Loosely inspired by the novel ‘Apples’, It moves even closer to ‘thriller’ territory than they do, and even adopts the ways of horror cinema, through a plot adventure involving not only murders but also possible paranormal entities, and involving detective Hercule Poirot – Kenneth Branagh – who is new to both. sides of the camera – doing its best to separate the logical from the supernatural. Many of the characters, including Poirot, are haunted by ghosts of another kind.
To underline these threats, Branagh says: shadows, mysterious silhouettes, aggressive camera angles, distorted images, Shocking sounds and other formal tricks attempt to create pressure and disorientation, but at times—in addition to a sometimes confusing and rushed narrative—function above all else as a distraction. Meanwhile, as in the previous two films, the interrogations are repetitive, in part because the clues he leaves are obvious enough that the solution to the mystery is hardly surprising, despite the crazy explanations offered. to justify it.