Murder on the Orient Express

Based on the classic Agatha Christie novel of the same name, and following along the tracks of numerous televised adaptations, Murder on the Orient Express (2017) sees Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, arrive in the form of an impressive-moustache-wielding Kenneth Brannagh, who also directs. After boarding the legendary train for a break from his work, Poirot meets a colourful assortment of characters (equally-colourful is the train-hoggingly-enormous cast that plays them). But when an avalanche stops the train its tracks, the passengers wake to find that one among them has been murdered in their cabin. With “probably the greatest detective in the world” on board, so begins an investigation.

mother!

Jenifer Lawrence plays the loving wife to Javier Bardem’s older poet who’s suffering from writer’s block. While Lawrence works hard at turning their very remote home into an idyllic setting, or a “paradise” if you will, a mysterious stranger (Ed Harris) turns up at their door, followed closely by his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer), both of whom Bardem’s seemingly-oblivious character welcomes with open arms - despite his wife’s understandable protests. But as more guests inexplicably begin to swarm Lawrence’s home, the film descends into brutal and unforgiving chaos that is as arresting as it is repellent.