Karen Wadsworth

The subtitle for this movie could be "Agatha Christie Goes Woke." Visually the movie is stunning--sets, costumes, and the CGI Egypt. However, this version of Christie's Death on the Nile diverges significantly from her cast of characters, their storylines, and most all the portrayal of Hercule Poirot. Gal Gadot's Linette Ridgeway has been humanized into a much more sympathetic character, and her frenemy Jacqueline as the jilted member of the love triangle is believable. But Branagh's Poirot is not Christie's Poirot, and except for some fun with Poirot's OCD while dining, the movie is darkly serious, somewhat preachy, and lacks the witty charm and humor that leavens Christie's writing on the dark crime of premeditated murder. Oh how I missed Angela Lansbury's hysterically funny portrayal of Salome Otterbourne! Most of all I missed Poirot. David Suchet got him right in the PBS/A&E series--down to the last endearing detail of OCD fussiness and vanity. curled mustachios, droll timing, and underlying warmth and compassion. It's not a movie I want to watch again.