Agatha Christie has gained unparalleled success due to the peculiar quality of her writing. She managed to inject touches of comedy, incorporate keen human insights, and craft superb and believable atmospherics. The David Suchet adaptations were stellar because they captured all three.
Kenneth Branagh's adaptations consistently miss what made Christie great. I understand the desire to freshen the material, but it is wrong to change the material, and in doing so remove what makes the material great and so nuanced in the first place. It is telling that box office has declined in each subsequent Branagh adaptation after Murder on the Orient Express.
This film was not the story Dame Christie wrote, period. The characters are not how she'd have written them.
I completely respect Mr Branagh's dedication to literature and fine cinema. But I think he loses his way.
Kenneth Branagh's adaptations consistently miss what made Christie great. I understand the desire to freshen the material, but it is wrong to change the material, and in doing so remove what makes the material great and so nuanced in the first place. It is telling that box office has declined in each subsequent Branagh adaptation after Murder on the Orient Express.
This film was not the story Dame Christie wrote, period. The characters are not how she'd have written them.
I completely respect Mr Branagh's dedication to literature and fine cinema. But I think he loses his way.