Death on the Nile

A book that defies the usual mystery formula, Death on the Nile is more than just a clever tale about murder.

The isolation of the cruise liner means that the world only hears about Linnet’s death after Poirot has solved the case – it is already old news. When compared to her earlier novels, Death on the Nile experiments with different tones of voice and styles. But Linnet’s fame comes solely from her inherited wealth – she is a forerunner of the modern celebrity who is famous for being famous. Christie’s play was not published until 1973 and she was more fond of Death on the Nile, which she thought: “one of the best of [her] ‘foreign travel’ ones.” Likewise, whereas many interwar detective novels ended with the promise of marriage, Death on the Nile begins with an engagement, between Jacqueline and Simon. Then, in the next chapter, we learn that Simon has suddenly married Jacqueline’s friend Linnet instead. Kenneth Brannagh’s adaptation of Death on the Nile reminds us that Agatha Christie’s work is not solely concerned with English villages.

The glittering cast of Death on the Nile is all dressed up but, alas, they have nowhere to go.

But as is the case with just about everyone in “Death on the Nile,” there’s not much to her beyond a couple of character traits. So much of “Death on the Nile” looks empty and artificial—a glossy, CGI-rendered version of legitimately grand and impressive sights. It’s impossible to believe these two people have fallen so intensely and spontaneously in love with each other that they’re willing to destroy an engagement (his) and a treasured friendship (hers) to be together. But there’s a show for Poirot to take in on the floor, as well: the handsome Simon Doyle (Hammer) and his vivacious fiancée, Jacqueline de Bellefort ( Emma Mackey), are tearing it up with an erotic, acrobatic dance. Seeing Hammer introduced this way, in such an aggressively physical and sexual manner, makes it impossible to ignore the allegations of assault and abuse that several women have made against the actor. The glittering cast of “Death on the Nile” is all dressed up but, alas, they have nowhere to go.

As they travel by steamer boat along the Nile, Linnet is killed, throwing suspicion onto the boat's passengers. Fortunately, detective Hercule Poirot (played ...

Linnet’s pearl necklace in the book has been replaced in the movie by a necklace with a huge honkin’ gem on it, in a box with a very prominent Tiffany & Co. logo. The character Bouc, who was reimagined as young and dashing in Murder on the Orient Express, makes a surprise reappearance here, I guess as part of Branagh’s efforts to create a Hercule Poirot Extended Cinematic Universe. He stands in for the book’s Tim Allerton, who is travelling with his overprotective mother. (In a slight twist, Simon uses paint, not red nail polish, as fake blood for his fake injury in the movie.) With Jacqueline detained for shooting Simon, and Simon supposedly injured at the time Linnet was killed, they are both cleared of suspicion—at first. The movie’s Mrs. Bowers is similarly actually a composite of Marie Van Schuyler’s nurse Miss Bowers and cousin Cornelia Robson. Also, unlike in the book, Hercule, they’re lesbians. Salome Otterbourne, a romance novelist in the book, instead becomes a Black blues singer (Sophie Okonedo). Whereas in the book she is accompanied by her daughter Rosalie, in the movie Rosalie (Letitia Wright) is actually her niece and business manager. The film’s opening scenes reveal that before becoming a detective, Poirot was a soldier in the first world war with plans to get married and become a farmer.