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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Just tried to watch the new Death on the Nile

170 replies

RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 17:55

What the fuck have they done to it?!

I really really wanted to enjoy it, huge fan of Agatha Christie, love French and Saunders.

From the start it's just too....... Sexy?.... For a Poirot?

None of it felt right.

I'm gonna try again later because I had to turn it off after about half an hour......but jesus.

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WimpoleHat · 18/04/2022 17:58

I hated it. I’m a huge fan of David Suchet (think he is “the” Poirot), but loved the Peter Ustinov film from the 1970s, even though it took liberties with the text. But the Branagh version is dreadful; total vanity project for him. And they’ve changed so much of the story - and rushed through some of the crucial parts - that it no longer fully makes sense. Without Colonel Race, for example, how on earth does Poirot have authority to start investigating a murder and searching people and their cabins?

Boxowine · 18/04/2022 18:01

I thought it was fantastic. But then, I am not an Agatha Christie fan so I have nothing to compare it to.

RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 18:02

It just doesn't make sense does it??

David Suchet will always be the Poirot, but I could accept a new version.

Branagh's version is off somehow isn't he?

The whole thing just isn't the lovely comfort blanket that Christie normally is.

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I8toys · 18/04/2022 18:02

I liked it but also thought the dancing at the start was a bit ott.

valerianaofficiana · 18/04/2022 18:05

Never watch Poirot sans David Suchet, always disappointed 😣

Oneborneverydecade · 18/04/2022 18:05

I enjoyed it, watched it at the cinema and watched it again with DH and DS12 since. We've since started watching Murder on the Orient Express. I don't dislike Branagh as Poirot

RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 18:05

@Boxowine

I thought it was fantastic. But then, I am not an Agatha Christie fan so I have nothing to compare it to.
I can understand that, but Christie is like a warm hug of nostalgic-ness

Never any sexiness or gratuitous violence, just hints at it.

But I read all the books and watched all the original Suchet programs and listened to all the radio dramas so......

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VangVieng · 18/04/2022 18:06

YANBU - I thought the same.

Really enjoyed the new Murder on the Orient Express so was disappointed.

IglesiasPiggl · 18/04/2022 18:06

All the Agatha Christie books have been done to death, so now people are trying to find self-indulgent new twists. They should just leave them be and let us enjoy the old fashioned versions as they were intended!

DelurkingAJ · 18/04/2022 18:06

I grumped internally most of the way through and then gave poor DH (not a particular Christie fan) a run down of why I was unimpressed. If it hadn’t pretended to be Death on the Nile I’d have enjoyed it enormously!

cobumbo1 · 18/04/2022 18:07

It's so weird, super glossy & glamorous but falls completely flat.

PandoraP · 18/04/2022 18:07

Is it on Netflix?

RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 18:07

@I8toys

I liked it but also thought the dancing at the start was a bit ott.
I'll try again, but the dance scenes really already pissed me off!!
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RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 18:09

@PandoraP

Is it on Netflix?
Yep Netflix
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LightandMomentary · 18/04/2022 18:10

Yep, me too. It just didn't work, despite a good cast.

RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 18:10

@IglesiasPiggl

All the Agatha Christie books have been done to death, so now people are trying to find self-indulgent new twists. They should just leave them be and let us enjoy the old fashioned versions as they were intended!
Kind of agree but I have some obscure books that have never been dramatised..... Why not try those?
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GlamorousHeifer · 18/04/2022 18:10

I loved it! Can't go wrong with a bit of glamour Grin

RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 18:11

@cobumbo1

It's so weird, super glossy & glamorous but falls completely flat.
This is kind of how I felt right from the start.... What was the point of it except to "sex it up"??
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hearmywomanlyroar · 18/04/2022 18:11

Yeah it's not good. Branagh was OK in Murder on the Orient Express but this was pretty awful. Also find Gal Gadot hard to watch after the cringefest Covid song she organised.

CaliforniaDrumming · 18/04/2022 18:12

It was hideous. Right from the moustache splaining to the unnecessary sexiness..They even introduced new characters and new victims.

It was like adapting Pride and Prejudice and having Eliza marry Mr Collins.

WimpoleHat · 18/04/2022 18:12

It’s one of the best Christie books, in my opinion. Diverse characters, multiple threads running through it - and a genuinely surprising twist in the tale. But Agatha Christie was a superb student of human nature - and so many of her plots revolve around small details that give the game away. That - along with the incredible study of old fashioned upper crust “Britishness” - is the real beauty of it. And the Branagh films have none of it. They’re brash and crass. It just about worked with Orient Express because it’s such a “clue a minute” storyline, but Death on the Nile requires a much subtler hand. And Poirot would never, ever shave off his moustaches!!!

honeylulu · 18/04/2022 18:13

I was really looking forward to it but felt rather meh about it. It was neither faithful enough nor different enough to impress. The dancing was ridiculous I agree. Oh yes here's my fiancee's well to do friend I've just met, I know I'll formally ask her to dance and, er, stick my face in her crotch, as you do!

CP191989 · 18/04/2022 18:13

I hated it but I love David suchet if I pretended it wasn’t death on the Nile I could enjoy it. I thought the sexy dancing was abit much would that had happened in that time?
Also, the bit about the war and Catherine are they Agatha Christie or were those parts just for the film?? I was disappointed

RozHuntleysLeftHand · 18/04/2022 18:13

@DelurkingAJ

I grumped internally most of the way through and then gave poor DH (not a particular Christie fan) a run down of why I was unimpressed. If it hadn’t pretended to be Death on the Nile I’d have enjoyed it enormously!
Luckily I was watching it on my own otherwise whoever I was with would have borne the brunt of my ranting Grin
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artisanbread · 18/04/2022 18:14

I am a huge Agatha Christie fan and will generally watch any adaptation but this was unwatchable. I love both the David Suchet and Peter Ustinov versions of Death on the Nile so perhaps this was just too different for me. I quite liked the John Malkovich ABC Murders though so I don't usually mind if things are done differently.