Movie Review

Starry Death on the Nile loses mystery of Agatha Christie

Kenneth Branagh in Death on the Nile.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

A few interesting things happened on the way to Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile being released in theaters. Originally scheduled for October 23, 2020, the pandemic pushed the release to September 17, 2021. But then, lead actor Armie Hammer was embroiled in a very strange sex scandal, pushing the film to its current release date. On the positive side, Branagh went on to direct a very personal film, Belfast, which is nominated for seven Oscars, including two for Branagh himself.

All of that weighs heavily on the film, a quasi-sequel to 2017’s dreadful Murder on the Orient Express, in which Branagh put his first spin on Agatha Christie’s iconic detective Hercule Poirot. Poirot is back, this time aboard a pleasure cruise on the Nile River in Egypt where Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) and Simon Doyle (Hammer) are celebrating their recent wedding, an affair for which no expense has been spared.

Per usual with Christie stories, the film is full of characters/suspects, including Doyle’s jilted lover Jacqueline (Emma Mackey); Poirot’s friend, Bouc (Tom Bateman), and his mother, Euphemia (Annette Bening); Linnet’s old flame, Windlesham (Russell Brand), who happens to be a doctor; singer Salome Otterbourne (Sophie Okonedo) and her niece, Rosalie (Letitia Wright); and more.

Death is contagious aboard the boat, as more than one character meets his or her demise. However, as was the case with Orient Express, a feeling of mystery is nonexistent in the film, which is very strange since that’s the point of the entire story. There are many reasons for this failure, but chief among them is it takes far too long for the main part of the film to start.

Branagh and writer Michael Green set up an elaborate story in which Poirot is not just coincidentally on the boat, but an actual acquaintance of multiple people on board, including the just-married couple. That twist changes the dynamics of the various interactions he has with everybody on board, and not in a good way. When bodies start piling up, Poirot’s unique observation skills feel less-than-compelling.

Green, back again after writing Orient Express, was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing 2017’s Logan, but he’s also been responsible for such dreck as Green Lantern, The Call of the Wild, and Jungle Cruise, which is as good an indicator of his talent as anything else. The only interesting wrinkle he adds to the story is a tragic backstory for Poirot, but that tidbit winds up being apropos of nothing.

The cast of the film do their level best with what they’re given. Branagh hams it up with the French accent, but it works for the character. Gadot is as luminous and charming as ever, but ultimately has little to do. Hammer always has a distinct smarminess to him, but that aspect plays much differently now. The best actor in the bunch, Bateman, is probably the least known, as he is a regular on British TV but has few movies to his credit.

Branagh proved himself a great filmmaker with Belfast, but almost none of that ability is on display in Death on the Nile. Christie was one of the great mystery writers of all time, but it’s time for Branagh to give up the ghost of trying to revive her stories, especially when he has little to add to her legacy.

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Death on the Nile opens in theaters on February 11.

Kenneth Branagh in Death on the Nile.

Kenneth Branagh in Death on the Nile

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Kenneth Branagh in Death on the Nile.

Documentary News

Dallas native directs new Netflix series Waco: American Apocalypse

ATF Waco tragedy david koresh

Waco: American Apocalypse

ATF agents at Waco compound in 1993.

Netflix has a new series on the tragedy that took place in Waco three decades ago: Called Waco: American Apocalypse, it's a three-part series documenting the standoff between cult leader David Koresh and the federal government that ended in a fiery inferno, televised live, with 76 people dead.

The series debuts on March 22, to coincide with the 30-year anniversary of the event which took place from February 28 to April 19, 1993. There's a trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scZ2x7R_XXc.

It's an oft-told tale and not the only new release to try and exploit the 30-year anniversary: Jeff Guinn, former books editor at the Fort Worth Star Telegram, just came out with a book also described as definitive, called Waco: David Korsh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage.

Waco: American Apocalypse is directed by another "local": Dallas native Tiller Russell (Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer), who obtained never-before-seen videotapes of FBI negotiations, as well as raw news footage and interviews with insiders.

Those insiders include one of David Koresh’s spiritual wives; the last child released from the compound alive; a sniper from the FBI Hostage Rescue Team; the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit Chief; journalists; and members of the ATF tactical team who watched colleagues die in the shootout against the heavily armed members of the religious sect.

The FBI videotaped inside the hostage negation room, thinking they'd be there maybe 24 hours, not 51 days.

"These are video cassettes that were sitting in somebody’s closet for 30 years, that show the mechanics of hostage negotiations in an intimate setting - not the hostage negotiation scenarios you see in films, but a team of people grinding, day in and day out, for 51 days," Russell says.

He also procured footage from Waco TV station KWTX, who had a reporter embedded in the initial gunfight.

While the standoff was broadcast live on TV at the time, much of it was out of camera range. The film uses 3D graphics to recreate the details of the compound.

Russell acknowledges that the tale of the cult leader who was also a pedophile, the debate over the right to bear arms, the constitutional limits of religious freedom, dredge up painful conversations that continue today.

"It cast a long shadow, pre-saging the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma, the shooting at Colombine, and a growing distrust of government, but I think it's important to reckon with our past so we don't repeat mistakes," he says.

"So much of what’s roiling in culture today can be traced to Waco, a story about God and guns in America with all these children at the center whose lives were determined by the adults around them," he says. "There was no playbook for what happened, everyone was out on a limb, and people made mistakes. But almost everybody was trying to do their very best."

"I think this is a story that's often recalled in politicized terms, with finger-pointing on who screwed up and how did we get here, but there's a profound humanity to it all," he says.

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