Expectations for Murder on the Orient Express

Expectations for Murder on the Orient Express

   Kenneth Branagh is pretty similar to another great filmmaker: Baz Luhrmann. All their films have an ensemble cast, a plot constructed over another art pieces or historical facts and and have great achievements on art desing, costume design and original score. I know what to expect on this film. However, I'm a bit worried of what he's going to do with Agatha Christie's bestseller. Right now I'm reading a text full of spoilers from the film because I'm not curious enough to watch it, only if my friends invite me to watch with them, and maybe my behavior as interlocutor may totally change as this text is written, therefore, I'll try to be careful on writing down my impressions and expectations without exploiting you, so I'm already saying "sorry" if I leak any plot point. Alright, let's begin

   Murder on the Orient Express is a Kenneth Branagh (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Cinderella, Hamlet) film about Agatha Christie's namesake novel. Hercule Poirot (Branagh) is trying to solve a murder on the Orient Express (duh??) before the killer strikes again. Apparently, he's adapting too much the original story. According to him "I was pleased to find out anecdotally that more people claim they read this book and know what the ending was than reads... 'Oh yeah, what was it?' And then they couldn't remember. I read a lot of crime fiction, and I often forget who did it shortly afterwards - so I like to reread things. You wouldn't be surprised: I like to go back to classic stories.".

   What I mean is that he's going to change some things to turn the story a bit more self-explicative. This can sound more optimistic for some spectators, but Agatha Christie's fans might leave the theatres disappointed because he decided to switch characters from different stories (e.g.: some of the key players in the story have been changed [...] the decision was made not to include the hyper talkative Greta Ohlsson, but instead feature Penelope Cruz as Pilar Estravados -- a character actually created by Agatha Christie for her 1939 novel Hercule Poirot's Christmas).

   Although he's very notable for his adaptations, this doesn't give him freedom to mess up with one of the most famous stories of the 20th Century. Adapting is making a relecture of an art piece, not taking an old story, constructing a new thing over it and inserting the old story's title again. Branagh is wrong. Don't watch Murder on the Express Orient, you, Agatha Christie's fan, you'll be disappointed.

Bibliography

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1723679/how-kenneth-branagh-felt-about-making-changes-to-agatha-christies-murder-on-the-orient-express