In my 2017 review of Murder on the Orient Express, I said that its somber, depressing mood is what tipped it into very good territory. Something about the emotional impact feels thoroughly modern for something based on a book from the 1930s. The same is true for Death on the Nile… the emotional maturity really makes up for something that might otherwise feeling missing in a modern film.

Death on the Nile stars Kenneth Branagh again (and his mustache with its own seemingly unnecessary tragic back-story) as brilliant and famous detective Hercule Poirot. This time he’s met up with friends for a cruise down the Nile when, of course, there’s murder most foul. Will he be able to round up the suspects and unravel the murder? Of course, this is a whodunnit.

The film has even less of a star-studded cast than the previous one and it’s sometimes a little noticeable. Certainly the actors they have are fine, but I think they wanted to go for more name brand recognition with the series. We have Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Annette Bening, Russel Brand, Jennifer Saunders, and Rose Leslie among other actors all doing serviceable work.

The actual murder and the unraveling of clues is all fine, as far as I could tell. I’m not an expert at deduction and solving whodunnits before the last page or act, but it seemed to hold up. Maybe some wild deductive stabs are made that would make more sense in print. I dunno. It’s all basically fine.

And it does have an underlying tone of weariness and sadness over love lost and squandered that I really like. It makes the story and characters feel more believable, more lived in, more exhausted by the tragedy. I liked this…. even though, this time, I had the feeling maybe this movie should have been more fun and less of a bummer. Your results may vary.

Overall, I thought this film largely worked and I liked the actors and detective work. I wonder if they’ll try for a third film with Branagh or if the troubled release schedule on this flick has worn him out. I’d look forward to another based on these two films.

Score: 84