Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

  I watched this on the plane coming back from Ireland.  It proved to be a good choice.

Detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) has been summoned from Istanbul to consult on a case in England so he gets the last ticket on the Orient Express.  The manager is his good friend Bouc (Tom Bateman), no stranger to Poirot's eccentricities.  When a shady businessman named Ratchett (Johnny Depp) is killed on board, Bouc turns to Poirot for help solving the case before the police can turn it into a PR debacle.  The great detective soon learns that everyone on the train has something to hide and it may be one of his most painful cases yet.

I had previously seen (and reviewed) the 1974 version of this Agatha Christie tale so I was really just evaluating this one for style and performances.  All of the actors here are top-notch and they really sell the mysteries of each character, but this is Branagh's show from top to bottom.  He throws himself into this role like the modern-day Olivier.  (Hey, if anybody has a shot at that title, it's him.)  The only other standout is Johnny Depp and not in a good way.  He looks puffy and tired in every scene and just seems to lack all energy.  Ten years ago, he would have personified malice but now it's just kind of sad.