"It takes two."
Hello everyone!
Think again!
Inevitably, it seems, whenever I end up watching one of Kenneth Branagh's remakes, I also end up digging out the good old David Suchet interpretations.
Now, I have nothing personally against Branagh - in fact, there are several movies of his which I thoroughly enjoy, Thor among them - but unfortunately he's trying to flex and take creative liberties in a canon setting where these liberties might in the end confuse people more than make the cases clear and presentable.
And after all, that's what Agatha Christie was all about, in the end.
Murder mysteries, or mysteries as a whole, and the rather psychological way our detective solves them.
So one last time then: we're on a trip to Egypt. Death on the Nile it is!
Unlike the "modern, sexy, exciting" remake, this one begins in a tiny flat with a couple who's attempting to get it on, but apparently the guy's got other things on his mind and other worries. His name is Simon - and Jacqueline, or Jackie, is his girl, and she promises him she'll think of something seeing as he's just lost a job.
She does indeed - she runs straight to her oldest friend, Linnet Ridgeway, a rich American-British heiress (and the irony of them finding the most British person, Emily Blunt, to portray an American, is not lost on me!).
Her idea is very simple: Linnet will hire Simon as her grounds manager, but Linnet, upon seeing Mr. Doyle, has other plans in mind, and three months later we see her and Simon on a honeymoon in Egypt. Very clearly, she wanted him to manage something else!
Also out there are Tim Allerton and his mother, Rosalie Otterbourne and her, er, decadent aunt, American Pennington who happens to be Linnet's trustee, a disdainful young man called Mr. Ferguson, and a truly odious older lady, Mrs. Van Schuyler and her niece, Cornelia.
And what do you know, who comes mincing down the steps into the dining hall? None other than Hercule Poirot, who's here on vacation but ends up being swept into dancing (because, naturally) as well as the Doyle drama when Jackie stumbles in, obviously slightly drunk, and causes a scene.
Linnet approached Poirot to ask if he would act as her advocate, which he declines on the grounds that she knew what she was doing and could have left Doyle alone, but he does in fact go to speak with Jackie, mostly because he feels sorry for her, and not because of Linnet. He's unsuccessful, but she hears someone listening in on their conversation about the pistol she has with her.
The next day, the Doyles put on a clever ruse to try and foil her, while the rest of the party - now also joined by Dr. Bessner - board the steamer Karnak for a little jaunt along the Nile. Unfortunately for the Doyles, Jackie is ALSO there, and Linnet is about ready to jump overboard, telling Poirot that everyone hates her.
Even so, Poirot can't really DO anything given Jackie hasn't really broken the law, so the group head to the temple at Abu Simbel where the Doyles almost get crushed by a falling temple ornament which they narrowly escape (no, it wasn't Jackie).
Poirot then gets the surprise of his life when what looks to be a native comes riding up on a camel all wrapped up for the desert, only for him to unveil himself as Colonel Race, an old friend (and government agent, at that). Having heard Poirot was around, he decided to tag along since things ALWAYS seem to happen around him.
And oh, they do indeed - from running into an obviously drunk Mrs. Otterbourne and getting annoyed by Mr. Ferguson, things are decidedly heating up by the time the little hamster takes himself to bed one evening. With only Ferguson, Cornelia, Jackie and Simon left, the last two get into an altercation which ends with her shooting at him.
Ferguson and Cornelia tuck her into her cabin, where Cornelia stays with her, and Ferguson wakes an indignant Bessner, who ends up treating a severe fracture on Doyle's leg. However, no one can find the pistol Jackie used to shoot him, and in the morning, while Poirot is dandifying himself, Race walks in to tell him someone shot Linnet Doyle in the head!
Comically enough, Race and Bessner keep snarling at each other like two mangy dogs, but it's Poirot's show and he begins questioning passengers, asking about the night before. He deduces that everyone was moving along the port side of the ship, but that Tim Allerton heard someone running, and a splash, on the starboard side.
This indicates that the murderer used it, in the five minutes it took for Doyle to be transferred and Ferguson to return to search for the pistol.
And as you watch Poirot skillfully unravel everything, we hear the French maid beg Doyle because, what's she supposed to do, maybe she saw something? And he promises she'll be fine, only when they're searching for Linnet's pearls (pearls which Mrs. Van Schuyler took, being klepto and all, and why Cornelia's with her all the time) they find her, stabbed through the heart.
More and more information starts pouring in: Poirot now knows that Rosalie dumped her mother's alcohol stash into the river in the night, that she saw someone and doesn't want to tell him who it was, and that the pearls are a clever fake, which leads him to Tim Allerton, one pair of a jewellery-stealing duo that has given Scotland Yard the run-around (until Poirot came on the scene, naturally).
He also happens to be gay, unfortunately for poor Rosalie, but moving on! Mrs. Otterbourne gets shot attempting to tell Poirot and Race who killed the maid, and finally, Poirot has all he needs to confront the real killers, Simon and Jackie.
See, Jackie pretended at the hotel on the mainland that someone was listening to lead him astray, then his wine was drugged so he was safely asleep, and while everyone was on the port side, Simon (not really shot, using red ink on a handkerchief for blood, which was later recovered with the pistol wrapped up in a shawl) ran to his wife's cabin, shot her, then returned and shot himself in the leg.
Afterwards, the maid tried to blackmail them, but he sent Jackie after her with Bessner's scalpel (the nod to Psycho music in the background of this scene is on point), and called out loudly to alert her when Mrs. Otterbourne was going to expose them.
But with clever deduction - and some logical guessing - Poirot makes Doyle crumble, promising him the executioner in Egypt is very efficient, which is SAVAGE, but then again so was the premeditated murder of Linnet, at that.
Sadly neither one gets to see the gallows as with the second pistol she owns, Jackie shoots both Simon and then herself on the plank walking down from the steamer; the story wraps with a flashback of the two lovers dancing, tightly wound, in that same small apartment, always together, always completely obsessed with each other.
Much more ambient-focused and conscious of the times this was happening (Ferguson, actually Lord Dawlish, who wants Cornelia but she tells him to hit the road while she accepts Bessner's proposal of marriage instead, mentions it's right before WWII), Death on the Nile, while losing some of the frills from the book (the side-plot of the British lawyer and Race's agitator) sticks very cleanly to the facts of the case and presents them to the viewer's discretion and imagination.
Not only that, but the music feels much more authentic, there aren't really any green or blue screens and no CGI, which definitely helps, and of course Suchet delivers as Poirot, as does the supporting cast in their other roles.
Overall, a much tighter, much cleaner interpretation without unnecessary added drama for drama's sake (as apparently, audiences nowadays wouldn't be able to sit through an hour and a half without fidgeting or something, honestly people have gotten so ridiculously lazy) but pure and simple Christie deductions, this version of Death on the Nile trumps this year's one by a wide margin.
So I definitely recommend you see this for yourself. If you don't enjoy it, then you really are one of nowadays' lazy viewers only here for the dramatics.
xx
*images and video not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment