Sunday, May 9, 2010

Murder on the Orient Express

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the mystery genre, particularly at the fact you know what happens when you re-watch it. But from time to time, I take an interest to it.


Unexpectedly returning to England from Istanbul, famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) finds himself traveling on the Orient Express. One of the passengers, Mr. Ratchett (Richard Widmark), informs Poirot that he has been receiving anonymous threats and asks Poirot to act as his bodyguard. Poirot declines but when Ratchett is found the next morning stabbed to death, it is apparent that the threats he received were very real. Poirot soon deduces that Ratchett was in fact the infamous Cassetti, believed to be the man behind the kidnapping and murder of 3-year old Daisy Armstrong some 5 years previously. As he begins to question the dozen or so passengers on the train, he realizes that several of them have a connection to the Armstrong family and he begins to form a solution to a very complex crime.

There are several twists and turns, but not enough to fully grab my attention. I think Sidney Lumet tried too hard on this project. Finney delivers a good performance though.

My Rating: ****

1 comment:

  1. I kind of like this movie. I think it is a huge success of the style level and Lumet does a brillant job of negotiating the limited spaces and finding mystery in them but the story just isn't that interesting. But yes, I bassically agree with your review here.

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