Death on the Nile

 

Kenneth Branagh's Death on the Nile (2022) is a stylized beauty of a picture that boasts staging and performance affectations that will appeal to fans of Old Hollywood murder mysteries while boring those expecting grittier fare.

As with 2017's Murder on the Orient Express, Branagh teams up with screenwriter Michael Green in recasting an Agatha Christie / Hercule Poirot whodunit as a story of good and bad love between and among "people with property" and "people as property."

After an interesting black and white prologue set during World War I that reveals the origin of Poirot's famous moustache, the story moves forward 20 years to the nuptials of a beautiful English heiress (Gal Gadot) and her handsome but poor beau (Armie Hammer) and their honeymoon cruise in Egypt, where the heiress is killed and all of the invited guests are suspects.

Branagh, a celebrated stage actor and director, has an eye for spacial composition and like his Poirot a fastidiousness for order and symmetry. The movie's interiors are immaculate and pristine; its exteriors expansive and captivating. I thought it was a delightful picture to rest my eyes on and savor the craftsmanship on display.