"MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS" (2010) Review

[rpowell]

Comments

[miritsu]

This was my favorite Poirot ever. It explored sides of Poirot that aren't necessarily likable, but that made sense; he's so committed to justice, but what justice IS isn't always clear-cut, and at some point he had to come up against that problem. Naturally, he would be resistant to that; he's always been so one-dimensional in his thinking (there's good and there's bad and that's that).

I thought Suchet's acting was fabulous; Poirot is a character very one-dimensional in his thinking, who is being forced to look at a point of view that puts his entire life's work into question. That he grows emotional, even enraged at both the actions of the murders and how he's being forced to think about things he doesn't want to, fits his personality type. I've seen people like him in real life in similar situations, and they tend to do everything in their power to keep from questioning certain things. When forced to ask those unwanted questions, very kind people can suddenly act exactly like Poirot did, spitting with rage and condemnation.

The stoning scene worked for me because I don't think it was vigilantism, and none of the characters seemed to see it that way either. The murder on the train was very cloak-and-dagger, carefully planned because it was against the rules of law. The stoning took place in public, in broad daylight, in full view of many other people and authorities; if the stone-throwers had been doing anything against the law or public morals, they would have been stopped. As they weren't, it wasn't anything breaking their societies rules, and so Poirot, so dedicated to rules, condoned it. It made sense to me.

However, I don't know how different the movie is from the book, as I haven't read this book. But as a movie, and as a fan of the Poirot character, I thought this one was just about perfect.