Death on the Nile review: a clever, campy murder-mystery

Death on the Nile is a well-paced murder mystery that’s both endearingly corny and genuinely moving, thanks on both counts to Kenneth Branagh’s ever-charming Poirot.

Despite the incredible bad luck of having three of its biggest stars embroiled in controversy just months before the film’s release, and being one of the many casualties of the COVID-19-related film delays, Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile – a sister film to his first Agatha Christie adventure Murder on the Orient Express – is finally hitting theaters. Though Gal Gadot’s performance leaves something to be desired and the film’s sense of aesthetics feels painfully dated, Death on the Nile still succeeds as a self-aware and at times moving murder-mystery, thanks to a strong ensemble and the ever-charming Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot.

Starring Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, and Kenneth Branagh, Death on the Nile follow a pair of newlyweds – starlet Linnet Ridgeway (Gadot) and her husband Simon (Hammer) as they embark on a celebratory honeymoon cruise on the Nile with a small group of their closest friends -the ensemble cast including Letitia Wright, Tom Bateman, Annette Benning, Dawn French, Russell Brand, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, Ali Fazal, Rose Leslie.

The seemingly happy pair are attempting to avoid Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey), Simon’s ex-fiance turned scorned lover, from whom Linnet stole Simon – and did we mention that Linnet and Jacqueline used to be best friends? After Jacqueline makes a sudden appearance on the cruise – shooting Simon in the leg and causing a night of chaos in the progress, the ship’s passengers awaken to find Linnet dead. All eyes immediately turn to de Bellefort, but when her alibi proves to be rock solid, it’s up to the world’s greatest detective, Hercule Poirot, to sniff out the backstabber among Linnet’s group of friends and family.

Admittedly, the first hour or so of Death on the Nile does begin to drag – though it’s necessary to put all the pieces on the board for any murder-mystery before getting to the good stuff, banking your film’s first act on Gal Gadot’s acting ability is a questionable move, especially when pairing her opposite Armie Hammer, with whom she has remarkably little chemistry. Though the two engage in their fair share of raunchy 30s dancing and some strangely hyper-sexualized poetry recitation, it’s hard to buy the newlyweds as a couple thoroughly in love, or even as characters worth caring about as individuals.

Thankfully, where the leads flop, the ensemble mostly picks up the slack – most predominantly Sophie Okonedo and Letitia Wright as quick-witted lounge singer Salome Otterbourne and her cousin/manager Rosalie respectively. Wright is romantically paired off with Tom Bateman’s Bouc for most of the film – a subplot that feels somewhat shoehorned in, but mostly succeeds thanks to Bateman’s charisma and Wright’s sharp dialogue. Okonedo, on the other hand, is Poirot’s love interest, and without question the film’s most dynamic character. Whether she’s flirting with Poirot, delivering one-liners, or pulling guns out of surprising places, Okonedo’s Salome is a vibrant personality who steals any and every scene she’s in.

It also helps that Salome’s presence allows us to see a new side of Branagh’s Poirot – the bumbling, borderline awkward suitor. Used to seeing him as the confident (almost cocky) detective, it’s endearing to watch Poirot stumble over his words around Salome like a blushing schoolboy, especially since it’s easy to see how strong of a match they would make with their combined wit. The film’s other dynamic duo comes in the form of filthy rich wannabe communist Marie Van Schuyler (Saunders) and her ‘nursemaid’ Mrs. Bowers (Dawn French).  Though they could likely be cut from the film without losing much value, French is always a welcome presence onscreen, and the eventual reveal as to the true nature of their relationship is surprisingly compelling.

Also surprisingly compelling is the aforementioned Tom Bateman as Bouc – an old friend of Poirot’s and the man responsible for inviting Poirot on the cruise ship in the first place. Similar to Salome, Bouc’s presence allows Death on the Nile to explore who Poirot is outside of merely his capacity for solving crimes, and gives us the chance to see him as a loyal friend with deep emotional ties of his own. In the same vein (although in a distinctly more tongue-in-cheek fashion)  the film also takes time to give us some of Poirot’s backstory – featuring the surprisingly morose story as to why he sports his famous comically large mustache.

As for the murder mystery itself, once the bodies start to drop around the one-hour mark, Death on the Nile kicks into high gear in customary Agatha Christie fashion – Poirot rounding up and interrogating suspects, flashbacks that give us certain character’s alibis, and (sticking closely to the original novel) many additional murders after Linnet bites the bullet. The reveal of the killer is a twist that’s been on the page for 60+ years now, but the film executes it with the right amount of gusto to keep viewers that are new to the story satisfied.

Though Death on the Nile isn’t reinventing the wheel when it comes to adaptions of Agatha Christie novels, the film’s ensemble cast is chock full of stand-out talent, making for a reimagining that (though rife with poor color grading and bad CGI) stays true to the spirit of the novel and makes for a satisfactory murder-mystery with a surprisingly self-aware sense of humor.