Agatha Christie

I've always enjoyed watching movies, as a child my grandparents would take us to the movies every Friday and Saturday night and we would see whatever was playing.  As I got older, I really became burned out on going to the theater but I still have a love of movies. (That was the most first world problem statement I've ever read, please forgive me) When it comes to movies I am very specific in the genres that I enjoy, or more specifically that I don't enjoy. All of that being said I don't go to the theater that often, but in the last month or two there have been 4-5 movies in the theater that I have really wanted to see, recently we saw two movies in one week.  One of them I'm not going to say what it was..okay it was Bad Mom's Christmas, go ahead and judge.  The other was Murder on the Orient Express, we have yet to see Justice League and Thor:Ragnarok (I know we are awful). My blog post tonight will be discussing Murder on the Orient Express.

I've spent the last year reading through Christie's works and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through, it doesn't sound like much but she wrote a ton of books.  Murder on the Orient Express is obviously one of her more famous novels and features the detective Hercule Poirot. I am a big Hercule Poirot fan, there are some characters in literature, film or television that you connect with and he is one of those for me. I remember my friend/College French Professor talking about how she read Racine's plays so many times it was as though she wrote them, with Poirot I feel as if I knew him. Poirot is very OCD, he knows things you wouldn't expect someone to know, he is proper and he is delightfully arrogant. These could sound like negatives but these are why I find him to be such a wonderful character. I remember being a child and seeing bits and pieces of Poirot episodes on TV and I found him to be annoying, but when you immerse yourself in Christie's stories Poirot and even Miss Marple become very endearing characters.

I love Murder on the Orient Express but of the Poirot stories it's not my favorite. I sort of groaned when I saw the first preview for this as I love David Suchet (who has portrayed Poirot for many years) and I didn't feel as though it needed to be redone.  It seems to me that Hollywood is out of ideas and are just remaking old classics, or just making the same story over and over. However, this was not how I felt about Murder on The Orient Express when I watched it. I'm going to highlight a few of my thoughts on this movie. 

1) Kenneth Branagh: I was dreading the mustache (it should be smaller and black in my opinion), but other than a few comments in the beginning of the movie they moved past it and Kenneth Branagh really encapsulated what Poirot is as a detective. I got past his looks, basically the fact that it wasn't David Suchet and I thought he did an excellent job as Poirot. I would love to see him in more Poirot movies.

2)Trains: It must be hard to shoot a movie that takes place almost entirely on a train. I kept thinking that throughout the film as there were many times where the camera would shoot from above or from weird angles. Murder on the Orient express can be a rather boring story, and I feel that they tried to make the movie visually stimulating to offset some of the slower bits. . Additionally, of the few versions of this story I've seen, this was by far my favorite because it was fun to look at (most of the time).

3)The best line of this movie was actually stolen from another Agatha Christie novel; 

“You tell your lies and you think nobody knows. But there are two people who know. Yes- two people. One is le bon Dieu - and the other is Hercule Poirot” 

It was actually from Mystery on the Blue Train, I just finished reading that novel the day we saw Murder on the Orient Express and it was fresh on my mind.  Additionally, this may be one of my new favorite quotes, so it stuck with me.  

Normally a thing like that would bother me, but the two stories are simliar enough and it is a very theatrical line. It was said at a time that all of the passengers sitting in a "last supper" like fashion, and it made for a great scene. I lost it right there in the theater. It ruined me in a good way. I bawled like a baby, but that isn't really very hard for me I cry easily with things like that.

4) Actors: This movie is filled with famous names and faces. Daisy Ridley is one of my favorite new actresses so having her in this film was enjoyable, even if it was just a minor role. Johnny Depp plays Ratchett aka Cassetti aka the murder victim-the book is close to 100 years old, it's not a spoiler, I am not a huge Johnny Depp fan (based on allegations regarding his personal life, but mostly based on Dark Shadows- How Dare He!) but I felt that he did an amazing job playing the slimey Cassetti. Michelle Pfeiffer did an excellent job, I know she was also in Dark Shadows but I've always loved her and she was Catwoman.

In the Spring, there is another Agatha Christie based movie coming out, Crooked House, that is my absolute favorite of her novels I've read so far. Murder on the Orient Express wasn't my favorite novel so the movie only had to be a little good for me to enjoy it, if Crooked House isn't excellent I may riot in the streets.

I would recommend Agatha Christie's novels to anyone, they are fun and easy reads. The thing I love the most about them is they are surprising. With many mysteries I can almost always correctly guess the ending by the halfway point in the book, with Christie I find that I am almost always surprised. I know I am a self proclaimed spoiler addict, but with Christie I really enjoy the surprise and riding the ride.

I hope this Thursday find you all well, thank you everyone who takes the time to read this blog.  It means so much to me that people read my ramblings.