Death on the Nile - In theaters February 11, 2022

Noodles

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Feb 28, 2011
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Title: Death on the Nile (2020)

Genre: Crime, Mystery, Drama

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Ali Fazal, Sophie Okonedo, Tom Bateman, Emma Mackey, Dawn French, Rose Leslie, Jennifer Saunders, Russell Brand

Release: 2020-10-07

Plot: Almost everyone on the S.S.Karnak, cruising the Nile, has a reason to want heiress Linnet Ridgeway dead. Her jewels are coveted by elderly Mrs. van Schuyler, her maid is upset because Linnet won't give her a promised dowry, writer Salome Otterbourne is facing a libel suit brought by Linnet, Salome's daughter Rosalie wants to protect her mother, American Andrew Pennington has been embezzling from the Ridgeway family, and former friend Jacqueline de Bellefort is upset that Linnet stole her fiance, Simon, away from her. Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot must unravel the mystery when Linnet (and some of the others) turn up dead.

 
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Film began with a black & white sequence during WW1, with a story of how younger Poirot got his mustache - I don't know if that's a newly made-up thing, as I didn't read any of the books, and why it was needed, if the point was to show Poirot's first (and only?) love.
But then it continued with a flashy bang in the form of a such a sexually charged dance, that I've seen actual porn less sexy and vulgar. That made me enchanted with the actress, I've never seen before, who, of course, happens to be French.
Immediately after walks in the wooden statue by the name of Gadot, with her horse's face - no offense to horses, beautiful animals, I'm just not into centaurs, or any kinds of Dr. Moreau's mutants (although I still have enormous sympathy for Fairuza Balk's Aissa, but you all liked your catwomen, one or another, so shut up)... what was I on about... Right, this 'Gal' with a man's face opens her giant mouth in a laugh, all opposite that pretty thing with big beautiful eyes (and a better actress) - so I inherently start rooting for Jacqueline, before even seeing all the bitchy things the 'Wonder Woman' does. But all that made the whole movie more enjoyable to me, because of what happens, how it happens, and me not only wanting it all to happen, but guessing the whole mystery in advance. I swear on my life I knew how it would end from the beginning, just thought there would be an associate, when the film started piling on things, and bodies, in an attempt at misdirection, but it all was explained without the need for one.
Nice to see rich white people at the center of the story, but I assumed that all the local Egyptians at the end must have thought - "Yeah, white people had quite a 'party.'" Also of note are a few of Poirot's quirky jokes, that made me chuckle outloud in the theater, whichI don't usually do, like ordering an even number of tiny desserts, admitting he does tend to accuse everyone of murder, and moving a dead foot, with a characteristic sound for a body with set in rigor mortis, just for symmetry.
Anyway, l thoroughly enjoyed it, like a feeling of a quality good mystery adventure movie that many of us complain 'are not made anymore'. Well here's one, please go see it, so we get at least another one.

P.S. For clarity and comparison, I've guessed the ending of Last Night in Soho too, and found it boring and generic. Some might think the same of this.
 
Movie information in first post provided by The Movie Database