‘MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS’
NOV. 10
Stars: Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer Director: Kenneth Branagh
The skinny: The all-star adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery revolves around a luxury train trip through Europe, a passenger’s death and a host of stranded suspects. Luckily, impressively mustached Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot (Branagh) is on the case. This new screen take on the literary detective tends to be more obsessive-compulsive than “dandyish or fastidious” like past Poirots, Branagh says. “Imbalance is an absolute enemy to him — it’s almost as if it’s a heartbreaking characteristic in him, which makes him ultimately quite lonely and vulnerable.” The precise problem solver is at peace with those aspects of himself, even if they tend to agitate him. “He’s a genuinely odd individual, but with a big and rather bruised heart, who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty,” Branagh adds. “Of course, once they are dirty, they have to be very, very thoroughly washed afterward.”