45. Murder on the Orient Express

If you know me, you’ll know I love murder. Murder is in the title of the film. I’m pretty much sold. I love a murder mystery; simple whodunit plot, and I’m there. Chuck in a few massively famous faces, and what could go wrong.

Now I hate to follow suit with any other reviews you might have read/heard/seen, but this really isn’t the best film. You might see Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfieffer, Dame Judi Dench, Kenneth Branagh, Penelope Cruz, but unfortunately a well billed film doesn’t make a good one. Branagh directed the film, and gave himself the starring role, but didn’t live up to it. Depp isn’t in it for very long and doesn’t leave much of an impression, Dench also isn’t in it for ages (but she is great- her side kick is Olivia Coleman, also great, but maybe not the best role for her), Pfieffer and Cruz I just found annoying. I feel like the characters could have been explored and utilised more, as of course they all have depth, and this holds importance in the story.

Sometimes the plot danced around and it lost my attention. I found this difficult, as Murder on the Orient Express is such a famous story (obviously I’ve not seen it previous to this, as I have only seen films from 2015 onwards), you’d imagine I would be fully immersed in it. I felt like I was more hooked watching The Snowman, a murder mystery with some very obvious plot holes. There was a bit of ‘is it him’ ‘is it her’ whilst watching the film, but honestly, I wasn’t overly invested. So when I found out the big surprise, I found it quite boring. I found the ending a bit of a cop out, and I thought it could have been much more exciting.

Now here is where the problem lies. Do I find the storyline dull? Or is it the way it’s portrayed. Speaking to people beforehand, they had told me it was a great plot. It must be, surely, as it is so famous. I can see how the plot could be clever, how it could all fit together like a perfect jigsaw. But through this interpretation, that is not how I felt. I felt disappointed. I wanted more from the film.

Again, we ask the question- is there too much hype? Do the big names attract the attention, but detract from the bigger picture? If you have seen the story before, I would give this version a miss. If you haven’t, I reckon it’s worth seeing it, as it’s a classic, but maybe see a different version. Maybe I’ll see a different version and let you know how I find it (probably not). Overall, I can only give Murder on the Orient Express a weak 6/10. Not worth the hype.

41. The Snowman

The Snowman I feel has had quite a lot of PR for this type of film, there were cardboard cut outs and giant posters all over the cinema, and I’d seen Michael Fassbender doing a lot of TV and radio promo. To my surprise, the film had not received great feedback, and once we’d booked the film, I checked Rotten Tomatoes and it had received a grand total of 22%. I read the blurb and thought that the film was really something that I would enjoy, so I was disappointed in the low percentage. To cheer myself up I looked up Johnny English and saw that it had received 20%. If this film is 2% better than Johnny English it will be all I have ever dreamed about.

Honestly.

Who thinks Johnny English is a 20% film. It’s a 110% film and everyone knows that.

The film introduces Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender); a successful detective with the police, with his speciality being murders. Unfortunately for him, for various reasons he is unable to take on murder cases, until the Snowman case comes along. He receives various letters with mysterious clues, as women keep going missing, and bodies keep being found. All the while, we are in beautiful Scandinavia, with beautiful shots of snowy scenes, with an effective dingy dirty grey filter, displaying the heartache of the murders, as well as Hole’s characters struggles.

It’s at this point that you may or may not know that I am obsessed with murder, true crime, crime fiction, mystery etc etc and this really is what I can watch for hours and hours. The film isn’t complex in it’s plot, and it’s relatively easy to follow. It’s definitely not revolutionary, and it won’t blow your mind. But still, it had my attention with the topic and plot line.

Unfortunately, the film is littered with plot holes, bits that don’t really make sense, and the big reveal of the murder theme at the end just didn’t make sense to me. It tried to address the reasons ‘why’ the murders occurred (every crime fanatic’s dream), but it just didn’t add up. It wasn’t difficult to work out who, and how the murderers had been carried out, and although there was a build up, it just didn’t quite deliver. The film is based on a book by Jo Nesbo, and I’m sure that the book would address these missing parts. But for a film that could have been great, it just didn’t quite get there. In that way, it reminded me of ‘Child 44’. An incredible book, but when I watched the film, ½ of it was missing! It just didn’t do the book justice. In a way I am disappointed as I think I would have really enjoyed the book, but I’ve ruined it for myself now!

I’m not saying for one minute that The Snowman is a 2/10 film. In fact I’d be quite generous and give it a 6.5/10, but it’s not a film that’s going to make you think, it’s not a film that makes you feel clever if you work out the murderer, and it is a film that left me wanting more. It’s an easy watch, it does what it says on the tin, and the cinematography is fantastic.