THE RAILS — Classic tales of murder, deceit and choo-choo trains are headed for a theater near you this weekend in the form of “Murder on the Orient Express.”

The movie is an adaptation of the Agatha Christie book of the same name and is the second time the story has been committed to film. Director Kenneth Branagh attempts to bring something new to the well-known story, and in some ways he does, but in other ways the movie is as dull as a train ride in third class through a barren desert.

“Murder on the Orient Express” isn’t bad, but it also isn’t great — it’s just somewhere in the middle of mediocre and good. Let’s say it’s goodiocre.

There are things that worked for this movie and things that didn’t and I’m here to let you know about both.

The first class (The good)

Branagh’s Poirot

In addition to directing duties, Branagh is also the lead actor playing the famous detective Hercule Poirot. Having read the book and understanding the description of the strange little sleuth with the curious mustache, I wasn’t sure I could envision Branagh in the role. Well, that’s changed because he brought the literary character to life.

His mannerisms, speech patterns and delivery made for an incredibly likable and capable Poirot, which also saved the movie from being completely forgettable. They have set the film up so we can possibly continue to see more adventures of Hercule Poirot, and with Branagh’s performance, I’d give it a watch.

The train

Actual train cars were built for the film and the practical sets make for delightful backdrops to the ongoing murder mystery. The set designers went out of their way to make beautiful sets to compliment the time period and the lavishness of a locomotive as elegant as the Orient Express.

The rest of the world building is pretty great to look at as well, even if the shots of 1930s Istanbul are heavy CGI, it still makes for some eye candy that helps break up some of the monotony we get from the film. We’ll chat about that soon.

Most of the cast

I say “most” of the cast here because a couple of performances felt a bit weak to me, but for the most part, the large ensemble cast was impressive.

Josh Gad is in a very noncomedic role and actually pulls it off. He’s not the strongest performance, but his change of face is believable and well played. Daisy Ridley was another stand out in her first big role following “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.” She delivered on the mysteriousness and vulnerability the role called for. Willem Dafoe is a crowd pleaser as always, and you can tell something is just a little bit off with his character, which is the norm for him. Other performances worth noting are Leslie Odom Jr., Tom Bateman and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, even though he wasn’t given nearly enough to do.

Stowage (The bad)

The rest of the cast

I’m not saying the rest of the cast was terrible by any means, but some performances felt unbalanced or just underacted. Some of these include Academy Award winner Penelope Cruz and Michelle Pfeiffer. Neither is bad, but some of their more emotional moments feel forced and ungenuine. One performance, in particular, that was pretty terrible and I still can’t tell if it was the acting or the absurdity of the character was that of Sergei Poluninn. Truth be told, I don’t think it was his fault as much as it was the fault of the writers.

His character has no motivation behind his ridiculous actions and his minimal scenes were awkward and managed to pull me out of the mystery at hand.

The pacing

In the movie, the Orient Express is moving along at a quick pace until snow stops it dead in its tracks and stalls the massive machine. Unfortunately, the film itself suffers a similar fate.

The beginning of the film has a quick and interesting pace as Poirot wraps up an investigation and then a series of events forces him onto the Orient Express. We meet the colorful characters that will be his fellow passengers and at this point of the film, I was thoroughly enjoying the movie. Then the murder occurs, the train stops and the pacing does the same.

Things progress slowly at this point, and I found myself looking at my watch more than once wondering if we’d been sitting in the theater for three hours or if it just felt like it. I never got to the point where I was about to pull my hair out, but for a murder mystery, it lost a lot of steam and got boring. Then, things pick up again.

Toward the end of the film things start moving again and you get back into the film, but it’s used so much time on that slow middle part that all of the interesting detective work as Poirot puts all the pieces together is so rushed that I felt robbed of the big reveal.

Last stop (conclusion)

Overall, “Murder on the Orient Express” is a pretty good time at the movies, but feels like it could have been much better. Many of the performances are enjoyable and much of the mystery engaging, but overall the movie just misses the mark. Again, not a bad movie, not a great movie, but a goodiocre one.

“Murder on the Orient Express” is rated PG-13 for violence and thematic elements. Check out Dave Clyde’s parents review of the film Friday for a better idea of what to expect from a content perspective.

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