Death on the Nile             3 stars

In Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh makes his second outing as the famous detective, Hercule Poirot, having previously solved a killing in 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express. This time the Agatha Christie hero is isolated on another means of transportation, a river boat on the Nile River in 1937 Egypt, where while on vacation a dead body is discovered among the many passengers on board. But before all this we first are introduced to some of Poirot’s backstory where we learn of his experiences in battle in the Great War and how he came to wear that unmistakably large mustache. This is followed by his encounters with many of the characters at a London night club that include Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer), a masculine playboy who steams up the dance floor with his fiancé Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey). He meets ultra-rich heiress Linett Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) there who is also Jacqueline’s best friend. Fast forward to the previously mentioned scene in Egypt at a high class hotel, we find that Simon has ditched his girlfriend and is now on his honeymoon with his new love, Linett. There are many other associated individuals at the hotel all with connections to Linett, but the shocker is when Jacqueline shows up to the party, uninvited. It is in these circumstances that our detective, Poirot, must interrupt his vacation and join the guests on the Nile riverboat, in order to keep the newlywed couple safe. It is only then that the first of the dead bodies appears, against the backdrop of the spectacular desert scenery of Egypt that could be from a movie of the forties or fifties. This being a movie based on an Agatha Christie novel, there are many suspects all with a possible motive for murder that must be investigated. Most of them are destined to stand around a lot until they are interrogated by Poirot while the viewer puzzles over who the killer could be, or yet another murder happens. While the production quality is high and we are treated to some very interesting cast members (including Annette Bening and Russel Brand) some of the social interactions seem more appropriate to our present than the 1930’s that the movie is set in. Of the two Poirot movies of Branagh, I liked this one better than Murder on the Orient Express. But for a superb murder mystery, you would do even better with 2019’s Knives Out.