THE ROSES : Tuesday 9th September 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE ROSES' this week at my local multiplex, and this satirical black comedy film is Directed by Jay Roach whose previous Directorial credits take in the three 'Austin Powers' films in 1997, 1999 and 2002, as well as 'Mystery, Alaska' in 1999, 'Meet the Parents' in 2000, 'Meet the Fockers' in 2004, 'Dinner for Schmucks' in 2010, 'Trumbo' in 2015 and 'Bombshell' in 2019. This film is based on the 1981 novel 'The War of the Roses' by Warren Adler, and a remake of the 1989 film, also titled 'The War of the Roses' which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner. The film was released in the US, and the UK at the end of August and here in Australia last week, having garnered mixed or average reviews, and so far grossing US$33M off the back of a production budget of just under US$31M.

The film opens up in London, where architect Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) is dining with colleagues in an upscale restaurant, and wanting to distance himself from the conversation of differing opinions to his own, he ventures into the kitchen and comes face to face with Ivy (Olivia Colman). The pair are instantly drawn to each other, and she tells him that she has a dream of relocating herself to America to start up her own business, to which he responds that he should go with her. Within five minutes of their meeting, they 'bond' in the coolroom.

Fast forward ten years, and Theo and Ivy have relocated to Mendocino, California, and are married and have twin children, Hattie (Delaney Quinn) and Roy (Ollie Robinson). They have differing parenting styles as Ivy spoils the kids with her homemade cakes, ice cream and fun activities, and Theo prioritises their health. 

With Ivy having sacrificed her business plans to raise their children, Theo buys her a piece of run down and long since vacated real estate, albeit overlooking the ocean, with his own money where she can finally open the restaurant she always dreamed of, which she calls 'We've Got Crabs'.

One night, during a severe storm, Theo's newly designed and constructed naval history museum is completely destroyed, just as Ivy's new restaurant is overrun with customers seeking shelter. Due to a glowing review from a renowned food critic, Ivy's business goes from strength to strength, making her the new breadwinner of the family, while Theo loses his job as a result of the naval history museum collapse, and agrees to be a stay-at-home parent. Taking full advantage of it, and jumping in with both feet he puts the kids on a strict regime of diet and regular physical exercise, and even has them sign a commitment to abide by the new regime, which it seems they are happy to abide by, much to Ivy's chagrin. As a result, Ivy begins to feel disconnected from her children's lives, while Theo becomes jealous of Ivy's success, and all the attention she is reaping.

Sensing a rift in their relationship, the pair make several attempts to reconcile, including a romantic weekend trip to New York City and marriage counselling, but all fail miserably. They begin to feel resentment for each other and blame the other for their problems. As a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, Ivy uses the profits from franchising out her restaurant business to give Theo an opportunity to build their dream home, located on a cliff top and overlooking the ocean.

Three years later, their dream house is complete, and the now thirteen year-old Hattie (Hala Finley) and Roy (Wells Rappaport) are prodigies accepted into a prestigious school in Miami on sports scholarships. Without the kids to distract them, Ivy and Theo's frustrations turn into a feud. Ivy mocks and humiliates Theo in front of their friends Barry and Amy (Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon respectively) and Sally and Rory (Zoe Chao and Jamie Demetriou respectively) during a housewarming party, discrediting his hard work. The next morning Ivy seeks to make amends by cooking him breakfast of blueberry pancakes, but he is not interested and instead goes out for a run. Theo, after saving a beached whale and experiencing an epiphany, realises that you only have one life to live, and that he is not in love with Ivy anymore and therefore wants a divorce. He asks only for the house which he designed and built, but Ivy says that she paid for it and wants to leave him with nothing.

They have a meeting with their divorce lawyers with Theo's friend Barry representing him and a renowned and super tough lawyer Eleanor (Allison Janney) representing Ivy. Barry is inexperienced in divorce law but has experience in property law, which he says is almost the same thing. The pair reach an impasse with neither prepared to budge on the house issue. 

As a result they decide to make each other's lives as uncomfortable as possible using cruel tactics, which results in Theo being blacklisted from architecture throughout the State as a result of Ivy posting an AI generated Deep Fake video of Theo online, and Ivy's restaurants being closed down for health contraventions as a result of Theo grating the hard skin from his toes into her parmesan cheese. Ivy has an allergic reaction after Theo tricks her into eating a mini Black Forest gateau laced with fresh raspberries, and will only cure her with an EpiPen if Ivy signs the papers. She signs as Zendaya rendering the papers useless, but he saves her anyway. 

Ivy then tries to shoot him with their home defence gun in response, with Theo ducking for cover behind the kitchen benches. They chase each other around the house as Ivy shoots randomly, with Theo smashing Ivy's beloved oven that once belonged to Julia Child in the process. Overwhelmed, and talking through a locked door, Theo admits he still loves Ivy despite everything that has happened between them. Ivy says she feels the same way, puts down the gun, Theo opens the door and the two embrace. 

As the pair collapse on the bed and become intimate, a gas leak is seen spreading through the house due to the damage that Theo inflicted on Ivy's oven. Unaware of the situation, Theo commands their smart home system to turn on the fire, at which the screen cuts to white. 

For me 'The Roses' would be up there as one of the best comedies of the year so far, and that's saying something! Watching Olivia Colman hand out her acerbic barbs and dropping the c-word on several occasions is a delight, and seeing Benedict Cumberbatch like he's just swallowed the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary delivering his quick witted well spoken retorts is a lesson in the command of the English language, and all credit to the scriptwriter Tony McNamara. Director Jay Roach has delivered a film that while perhaps not up there with its more bleak 1989 predecessor, he has crafted a nonetheless entertaining and modern 21st century take on a marriage in crisis, and the fallout thereof. The film has several moments of genuine humour, a number of farcical set pieces peppered throughout by a few occasions of emotional heft that help lift this remake above the also rans.

'The Roses' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

WONKA : Tuesday 19th December 2023.

I saw the PG Rated 'WONKA' earlier this week, and this musical fantasy film is Co-Written, based on a story and Directed by Paul King in his fourth feature film outing following his 2009 debut with 'Bunny and the Bull', then 'Paddington' in 2014 and 'Paddington 2' in 2017. This film tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in the 1964 iconic novel 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' by Roald Dahl - one of the best selling children's books of all time. It had its World Premiere showcasing in London on 28th November, and was released in the UK on 8th December and here in Australia and the US last week, cost US$125M to produce, has so far grossed US$162M and has generated largely positive reviews.

Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet), an aspiring magician, inventor, and chocolatier, arrives by boat in Europe to establish his chocolate shop at the famed Galeries Gourmet. Burning through his meagre savings of just twelve silver sovereigns on his first day in the big city, he is offered an overnight stay at Mrs. Scrubitt's (Olivia Colman) boarding house by her henchman Bleacher (Tom Davis), and signs a lengthy contract despite orphan Noodle's (Calah Lane) warning about the need to read the fine print, which he merely glances over and duly signs. The cost of his one night stay is one silver sovereign, which Wonka commits to paying the next night and then he'll be on his way. 

To pay off his debt, the next day Wonka introduces 'hoverchocs' chocolates that make his customers fly at Galeries Gourmet. Facing mockery from three rival chocolatiers - Arthur Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Gerald Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Felix Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) who call the Chief of Police (Keegan-Michael Key) to confiscate his earnings for disrupting their businesses and conducting his business without a chocolate shop. 

Returning to Mrs. Scrubitt's later that evening with not a penny to his name and unable to pay for his board and lodging, Mrs. Scrubitt announces that the cost of Wonka's one night stay has escalated to 10,000 silver sovereigns due to the fees and penalties imposed on him under the terms of the agreed contract as signed by him. Wonka is therefore ordered to work in a launderette in the bowels of the her building from which there is no escape, and for the next twenty-seven years being the length of time it will take him to pay of his debt. He therefore joins five other captives all locked up for similar reasons, including Noodle. He learns of a 'Chocolate Cartel' from Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter) an accountant as one of the other five, of a plot involving the rival chocolatiers. Wonka makes Scrubitt and Bleacher fall in love by faking a story of how Bleacher is in fact an Austrian Prince, and facilitates his escape to sell chocolate with the help of Noodle, who will receive a lifetime supply of chocolates for her efforts. 

The Cartel exploits the Chief of Police's weakness for chocolate to force Wonka to leave town while Wonka tells Noodle that his passion for chocolate stems from his late mother (Sally Hawkins), who gave him one last chocolate bar, and vowed to be there with him when he became successful. Wonka tells Noodle about the theft of his chocolates by an enigmatic orange man with green hair who steals them from him at night and has been doing so for about the last four years. To produce his signature chocolate, Wonka needs a supply of giraffe milk, and so joined by Noodle, the pair visit the local zoo at night and once they have befriended and calmed Abigail the giraffe, Wonka begins milking her, filling up a small urn. 

Together with the other four captives, the group embark on selling chocolates to ultimately pay off their debts while using the underground storm drain covers to evade Scrubitt, the Cartel and the Chief. Trapping an Oompa Loompa named Lofty (Hugh Grant) as the thief in a upturned glass bell jar, Wonka discovers that the Oompa Loompa seeks pay back for the four cocoa beans Wonka took years ago under Lofty's watch while he napped on the remote island home of the Loompas. Lofty ingeniously dupes Wonka, so facilitating his escape.

Using the monies raised from selling his chocolates, the group of captives open Wonka's dream chocolate shop in the Galaries Gourmet opposite the three owned by the Cartel, The Chief and the Chocolate Cartel, informed of Wonka's endeavours and now unable to arrest him since he has a legitimate shop, denounce him to Scrubitt. Infusing his chocolates with Yeti sweat, Scrubitt incites chaos among the customers through a side effect being the rapid growth a multi-coloured facial hair among men, women and children. The customers quickly revolt, leading to the complete destruction of Wonka's new store. 

Facing much adversity, Wonka reluctantly agrees to the Cartel's offer to leave town by ship to pay off everyone's debts, and never to make chocolate again. Everyone is released from the launderette except for Noodle. Cartel member Slugworth pays Scrubbit to keep her there indefinitely. Before jumping off the dynamite rigged boat with Lofty, Wonka has a conversation with him during which in dawns on him that Noodle is Slugworth's niece. Noodle, who was reported dead to her birth mother Dorothy, was sold by Slugworth to Scrubitt in order to eliminate her claim to the family fortune. After rescuing Noodle with the help of the group, they devise a strategy to obtain the Cartel's incriminating set of real accounts rather than the fake set. 

The group set up a distraction at the local cathedral involving Father Julius (Rowan Atkinson) - a priest in cahoots with the Cartel and who is also addicted to chocolate, and Abigail who crashes a funeral for a local dignatory. This enables Wonka and Noodle to infiltrate the Cartel's base located directly under the cathedral, where they are confronted by the Cartel and almost drowned in thousands of gallons of released melted chocolate. Through the use of hoverchocs, Wonka enables Lofty to rescue them and unveils the Cartel's misdeeds. Exposing their actions to the authorities and the public, they release the Cartel's chocolate reserves through a fountain, which Wonka sprinkles his unique ingredients into, and so wrecking the Cartel's business once and for all. 

The Cartel, levitated uncontrollably by the super strength hoverchocs, meet their downfall, and the Police arrests their now seriously overweight Chief for his part in their business dealings, as duly recorded in the official set of accounts. The crowd revels in tasting Wonka's chocolate fountain, and Wonka has a vision of his mother in the crowd as they blow each other a kiss. He then unwraps his mother's chocolate bar, discovering a Golden Ticket with a message that says chocolate is best shared. Sharing his mother's chocolate with friends, Wonka helps Noodle reunite with her mother Dorothy whom they traced to a library close by and settles his debt with Lofty. 

With Lofty now ready to return to his island home, Wonka ask him to join him as his Chief Taster and to enjoy a lifetime of free chocolate, to which Lofty readily agrees. Wonka then acquires an abandoned castle to commence building a new chocolate factory. In a mid-credits scene, we see what became of the five members of Wonka's group and how Scrubitt and Bleacher are arrested after their attempt to destroy evidence of sabotaging Wonka's shop backfires.

I have to say that I had fairly low expectations going in to see 'Wonka' but came out having been pleasantly surprised. Here Director Paul King has crafted an origin story worthy of its predecessors with top rate production values, song and dance routines that don't feel over bloated or simply space fillers but help move the story along and showcase Timothee Chalamet's singing and dancing abilities that only serve to prove his versatility as a notable screen presence. This soft centred film has heart, whimsy and has genuine moments that made me chuckle even if the plot is a little thin on the ground, but that said you'll be hard pressed not to be carried along by this live action family friendly film that is a perfect fit for the festive season. 

'Wonka' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE FAVOURITE : Tuesday 8th January 2019.

'THE FAVOURITE' which I saw this week at my local Art Deco independent theatre, is made by Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek film, video, and theatre Director, Producer and Screenwriter who here brings us this historical comedy drama offering that saw its World Premier screening at the Venice Film Festival back in late August, and where it won the Grand Jury Prize, and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress going to Olivia Colman. The film went on general release in the US in late November, was released in the UK on 1st January, has so far taken US$28M off the back of a US$15M production Budget, and has garnered widespread Critical acclaim. Lanthimos has enjoyed success more recently also with 'The Lobster' in 2015 and 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' in 2017. The film was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture of which it won one, for Olivia Colman as Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical, and has subsequently picked up a total of 78 award wins and another 228 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit, including thirteen recently announced BAFTA nominations.

Set during the very early years of the 18th century when England is at war with the French, and a frail 42 year old Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) sits on the throne suffering from gout, weight gain, and various other ailments - both physical and mental. She has very little interest in governing her lands and the machinations of the two political parties of the era and instead likes to throw lavish parties, have political guests almost run riot in her Royal household, and care for her seventeen rabbits whom she refers to as her children and which run around freely in her chambers. Each one of the seventeen rabbits represents each one of her seventeen children she had lost over the years, mostly though miscarriages and still births.

Acting as confidante, advisor, lover and practically surrogate Queen is Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) who has considerable sway with the two political parties - the Whigs and the Tories, who mostly look to Sarah as the influential mouthpiece of the Queen, and who in turn they try to influence on matters requiring some direction or a decision.

Meanwhile, Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) arrives at the Royal household seeking employment, having been unceremoniously booted out of a horse drawn carriage at the gate. Abigail was an earlier woman of means, educated, and from a privileged background and upbringing. But for reasons of some poor business choices and a gambling habit, her father lost his good name and fortune and sold his daughter to a German in exchange for a settlement of his debts. And so Abigail has fallen on hard times. Abigail is brought into the Royal palace but as a scullery maid to work in the kitchen on menial tasks - washing pots and scrubbing the floor.

One evening however, Abigail is hurriedly asked to attend the Queen's bed chamber where she lays prone on the floor, and to apply bandages to a sore, infected and inflamed leg. She sees this as an opportunity not to be missed, and so takes a horse early the next morning and rides off into the forest in search of a plant remedy to ease the Queen's suffering, which she then applies in secret. When Sarah initially sees what Abigail has done, and without any permission or knowledge from the Queen (for she slept while Abigail applied the plant extract poultice), she punishes her and orders she be birch whipped for her insolence. However, the Queen's suffering is eased as a result of the remedy, and Sarah can see that her intentions were in fact genuine, so she halts the whipping, and out of gratitude makes Abigail her Lady-in-Waiting.

Robert Harley, the 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer (Nicholas Hoult) is a member of Parliament and an influential landowner approaches Abigail with a view to her spying on Sarah and drip feeding him intelligence on what Sarah is scheming behind Royal closed doors, and as a means to sidestep her authority. Abigail initially refuses, but sometime later late at night witnesses Anne and Sarah in a secret lesbian relationship. As a result of this sighting, Abigail begins plotting her own rise to win the Queen's favour and reestablish her position in society.

Sarah becomes increasingly occupied with the war between England and France, at which her husband John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough (Mark Gatiss) is on the frontline battling it out for Queen and country. This is the opportunity for Abigail to foster a closer relationship still with Anne, which she does to good effect, ultimately becoming a sexual relationship. Sarah catches sight of a naked Abigail lying in bed next to Anne one morning, and as a result urges the Queen to have her sent away.

Catching onto this, Abigail spikes Sarah's tea a few days later just before she rides out on horseback. In the forest, Sarah comes to a steady halt on her horse, leans over, vomits and passes out, falling off the horse with one foot caught in a stirrup. The horse bolts dragging an unconscious Sarah through the rough undergrowth of the forest floor for hours until nightfall. Sarah is missing for a couple of days. Anne thinks that this is just a rouse on Sarah's part to make her jealous, and so she dismisses any suggestions of a search party, rather letting her stew in her own juices.

The Queen once again returns to Abigail as her favourite aided by her flattery and subservient attitude. The Queen's first gift to her new favourite is to be permitted to accept the marriage proposal of Samuel Masham (Joe Alwyn), a Baron of Queen Anne's court, which immediately reinstates Abigail's standing in society, aided by a gift of a two thousand pound dowry from the Queen every year from this point on.

Later Sarah comes round in a brothel where her wounds had been attended to do by the Madam of the house. She returns to the Royal household some days later badly scarred to her left cheek, battered and bruised and issues an ultimatum to the Queen to send Abigail away now once and for all, otherwise she'll leak very personal letters to the press that recount the secret affair between the pair. However, Sarah's ploy backfires and ultimately destroys the relationship that she had enjoyed for years with the Queen. As a result, Sarah is stripped of any power she once had, her privileges and her place in the Royal court, and is sent back to her own family home. Sarah then makes numerous attempts to write a letter of reconciliation back to Anne, and finally after finding the words, the letter is intercepted by Abigail and burned on the open fire before it reaches the Queen.

Abigail, as the newly appointed keeper of the Royal finances, reports to Anne that there seems to have been some impropriety in the financial records of the Royal palace, and Sarah appears to have syphoned off seven thousand pounds over recent years in favour of her husband. The Queen initially dismisses this notion, but upon reflection has Sarah and her husband banished from Great Britain. With Sarah now well and truly gone, Abigail's appetite for the good life start to get the better of her. Lavish parties, wild entertainment, rich foods, good wine begin to take their toll.

One day while Anne rests in her bed, and Abigail sits in a chair looking out of the window slurping on a glass of wine with seventeen rabbits running around, she deliberately steps on a rabbit squeezing it under her foot. The rabbit lets out a tiny yelp in pain and fear which is just enough to stir the Queen from her slumber, and for her to take grave offence at. Falling out of bed and scrambling to her feet, Anne steadies herself while Abigail rushes over to assist. Anne grabs Abigail by the hair and orders her to her knees and to start massaging her legs, just as though she were a lowly servant. In massaging the legs of the Queen, both parties seemingly readjust to a new order.

'The Favourite' is a lavish production - from the set design, to the costumes, to the internal and external surroundings around which the film is framed, and it packs a punch a whole lot more than its mere US$15M production Budget would suggest. This is a wickedly entertaining partially historical telling of the fractured relationships that unfolded in the Royal household of England circa 1708, and specifically between the three very manipulative, very strong, very driven female characters. There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments in this film, particularly a dance sequence at a party that has to be seen to be believed involving Harley and Sarah dancing like its 1999 in the Royal household - hysterical! And the use of the 'C' word gets plenty of airing in the film too - hence its MA15+ rating. Lanthimos succeeds in ticking all the boxes - from the striking performances of the three female leads Colman, Stone and Weisz who all demonstrate jealousy, anger, cunning and a nervous tension in equal measure, and from Hoult too; to the production values; to the witty, intense and always sharp dialogue; to the score; and the storyline whilst grounded in historical fact also adds more than a dash of fictional poetic license. And why not, when it all adds up to a film as commendable as this. See it on the big screen while you can, and see for yourself what all the buzz surrounding this film is about.

'The Favourite' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS : Tuesday 14th November 2017.

'MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS' which I caught earlier this week is the classic 1934 Agatha Christie murder mystery novel upon which this film is based, that has been committed to the big and small screens a number of times over the years, most notably in 1974 as Directed by Sidney Lumet and starred an ensemble cast. That film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won one - for Best Supporting Actress going to Ingrid Bergman. It was also nominated for ten BAFTA's and walked away with three for Best Supporting Actor and Actress to John Gielgud and Ingrid Bergman respectively, and Best Music. All up the film won nine awards and received a further sixteen nominations, and at the Box Office returned US$36M from its US$1.4M budget outlay. The films cast included Albert Finney as the super sleuth gentleman detective Hercule Poirot, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Michael York, Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave and Jacqueline Bisset. In 2001 a made for television movie was released of the same name, featuring the same storyline, and the same title but set in the present day and starring Alfred Molina as Hercule Poirot, Peter Strauss and Leslie Caron. Then in 2010 the popular long running television series 'Agatha Christie's Poirot' with David Suchet as the detective aired in Season 12, Episode 3 'Murder on the Orient Express' which featured the acting talents of Hugh Bonneville, Jessica Chastain, Barbara Hershey, Toby Jones, David Morrissey, and Eileen Atkins. There has also been a BBC Radio 4 serialisation of the book and a video game adaptation over the years too.

And so now in 2017 we have this latest lavish reiteration of Christie's famed novel with Kenneth Branagh on Directing duty and starring as the hirsute Belgian detective Hercule Poirot with a ensemble cast for this production that reads like a Who's Who of British and American acting talent. The film was released in the UK on 2nd November, and in the US and Australia on 9th November. and has so far grossed US$105M off the back of a US$55M production Budget. The film has generated mixed Reviews from Critics, but all universally praise the casting and production values.

The film opens up with a scene setter in a 1934 Jerusalem at the site of The Wailing Wall where Poirot announces to a gathered crowd of onlookers who the culprit is in the theft of a valuable religious artefact. Job done, but not without a scuffle, he is ready to depart to Istanbul to travel onward to London to work on another case that needs finalising, and in between time he is to take some much needed R&R. In Istanbul, while checking out the culinary delights of a local market he happens across an old friend, and a Director of the Orient Express, Bouc (Tom Bateman) who offers the Detective a sleeper cabin on the unusually booked out Orient Express. Managing to squeeze Poirot into a shared cabin, we quickly grab glimpses of the other well to do passengers as they board, that Poirot will be sharing his journey with. The first of which is a Caroline Hubbard (Michelle Pfeiffer) a trophy ex-wife to several ex-husbands, clearly wealthy and hungry for a man, who instantly tries to chat up Poirot, but he'll have none of her advances, preferring to keep himself very much to himself, and besides, he's got a Charles Dickens book to catch up on.

As the train gets underway, Poirot is introduced to Samuel Ratchett (Johnny Depp), an American businessman who looks more like a mobster than a professional purveyor of fine arts, collectables and antiquities that he claims he is new into and still learning as he goes. Ratchett is joined on the journey by his bookkeeper come lawyer come personal assistant Hector MacQueen (Josh Gad). Over a pastry in the dining car, Ratchett confides in Poirot that he has recently undertaken some dodgy deals back in Istanbul selling fake wares, and those hard done by now want pay back and are vying for his blood, and sending him threatening letters. Ratchett pleads with Poirot to act as his personal bodyguard, for a handsome fee, for the duration of the trip to ensure his safety, but Poirot politely declines. Later that night while Poirot is trying to get to sleep he is constantly disturbed by noises coming from outside his cabin in the interconnecting hallway. Later on that night when the commotion has settled down, a lightning bolt strikes the side of a snow covered peak sending an avalanche crashing down upon the advancing train, causing the engine carriage to derail, halting the journey in its tracks on a remote mountain side.

The next morning, Poirot learns that Ratchett was murdered in his bed sometime during the previous night - stabbed a dozen times in the chest. Poirot and Bouc investigate the crime scene and the murder case, with Bouc being the only non-suspect on the train, because he slept in a different carriage the night before, unlike everyone else. Initial evidence points to a suspect working alone, with Caroline Hubbard claiming that during the night there was a strange intruder present in her cabin. Several clues are left in Ratchett's cabin, including an unused pipe cleaner, a fine lace bloodstained handkerchief with the letter 'H' engraved, and a partially destroyed note linking Ratchett to the case of an abducted child Daisy Armstrong some years previously.

The Armstrong child was held for ransom, and then killed. Ratchett is identified as being John Cassetti, the murderer of the child. Grieving, Daisy's mother Sonia collapses and gives birth to a still born premature baby and dies in child birth, and shortly thereafter, her father Colonel Armstrong commits suicide. The family's housemaid Susanne, was found guilty of the murder on trumped up charges allowing Cassetti to go free, and she hanged herself while in custody, only to be determined innocent after the fact.

More evidence is uncovered during the course of the investigation, while rail workers dig out the engine carriage from the snow. Poirot and Bouc systematically interview all the other suspects gathering further insights into their individual backgrounds, possible motives, and sorting through the lies from the truth. Poirot discovers through his expert powers of deduction, that all suspects are in some way linked to the Armstrong household, the family, or the ensuing court case. Whilst interviewing Governess Mary Debenham (Daisy Ridley) who upto now has been the most aloof about Ratchett maintaining her silence, Poirot is confronted by Dr. John Arbuthnot (Leslie Odom Jnr.) who claims responsibility for the murder, and who is also the secret interracial love interest of the Governess. A scuffle breaks out, in which Arbuthnot, a trained former sniper, shoots Poirot in the arm, but who is then incapacitated by Bouc. Poirot however, can see that Arbuthnot had never intended to kill him, and was acting out of love for Mary Debenham.

By now, Poirot has amassed enough evidence, but the prime suspect still eludes him. He calls everyone together in the nearby train tunnel while the rail workers set the engine carriage back on the tracks. He has two theories. One is that there was a lone murderer who masqueraded as a Conductor, killed Ratchett and fled the scene of the crime undetected under cover of darkness. The other is much more complex and involves every passenger suspect aboard the train being linked to the Armstrong's, to Susanne and the subsequent trial in some way - giving them all a possible motive.

Poirot concludes ultimately that each and every one of them had reason for killing Ratchett and therefore in this case, unlike every one of the cases he has solved before, there is no right or wrong, it is not black and it is not white, there is no guilty nor innocent, and as such he will have to live with that imbalance. This outcome does not sit easy with the Super Sleuth, but he must accept it on this occasion and under these circumstances.

Upon arrival at the next train stop, Poirot presents the evidence of a killer acting alone to the Yugoslavian Police, who accept his story, leaving the passengers to continue their onward journey, each wrestling with their conscience. As the Detective leaves the train, a messenger alerts him that he is required urgently in Egypt, as there has been a murder on the Nile. Poirot accepts the case, forgoing his much needed R&R, as the Orient Express departs the station, and he jumps into a waiting car.

The film also stars Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Penelope Cruz, Olivia Colman and Lucy Boynton amongst others in supporting roles offering minimal dialogue that belittle their acting credentials leaving them to wallow in the background. There is no doubt that Branagh has cast an impressive line up of A-List Actors who bring a gravitas to the proceedings and no doubt a pulling power into movie theatres the world over. The production values are high and the era has been recreated faithfully with its costumes and set designs, and the CGI adds to the depth of this period piece whodunit with its stunning vistas. But, is that enough to carry off this film? Despite such an ensemble cast, I couldn't help feeling that our amassed group of fine acting talent were left wanting to do more with their characters, but instead are largely sidelined with very little dialogue of note. Branagh meanwhile, chews up every scene and with his enormous well kempt moustache arriving fifteen seconds in the room before he does, he puts together the pieces of this murder jigsaw puzzle with relative ease it seems whilst telling everybody that he is the greatest Detective the world has ever seen. And, when the ending comes and the big reveal, it's all a bit of an anti-climax really, that sees Poirot going back on his principles that have served him so well throughout his career to date - first time for everything I guess, including his Oscar worthy facial fuzz extraordinaire. A classic story that looks good on the screen and has a lot going for it, but ultimately are period piece whodunits still a drawcard for the modern audience . . . . only you can answer that one!

Depending on the success of this film, Branagh has indicted his willingness to adapt further Christie novels involving the master of investigative deduction, Hercule Poirot, and judging by the closing scenes of this film it looks as though 'Death on the Nile' could be up next.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-