Kenneth Branagh and his mystery busting moustache are back, with another star-studded adaption of an Agatha Christie source.

I mention the moustache early on, because, well, so does the film, effectively giving Poirots well groomed mouser its very own origin story. A long sequence which very much sets the tone for the first act.

You can barely read a review of Death on the Nile without the words old fashioned cropping up at least once, and there is good reason for this. Not only is Death on the Nile a love letter from Branagh to Christie, but to the kind of 70’s dramas that preceded it - most notably the 1978 version of Death on the Nile starring Peter Ustinov. 

It sets the scene slowly, taking it’s time to introduce the many characters we will have to get to know (before a number of them are bumped off), and enjoy the beautiful scenery that Egypt has to offer, despite the fact that all filming took place in the UK.

It is ponderous, and meandering, and, unfortunately, a bit of a slog to get through these first 45 minutes, to the point that you’d have been forgiven for forgetting you were watching a Christie adaption at all.

Luckily for us, and for the film, eventually the murders start happening. 

It’s at this point that the film finally comes to life. The pace quickens, the tension heightens and the little grey cells start working.

The mystery is as good as you’d come to expect from the Queen of Crime, and one area where Death on the Nile may attract audiences more than 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express is that less people will know the outcome.

It feels like you would have had to have been living under a rock not to know the final revelations of The Orient Express, so ingrained is it in popular culture, but Death on the Nile, whilst one the the better known Poirots - in part due to the aforementioned  ’78 version - the mystery should be enough to keep all but the most ardent of fans guessing through to the end.

Death on the Nile’s biggest strength however is Branagh himself. His Poirot is funny, but at the same time filled with rage and heartbreak, the latter subtly creeping into his voice at keys points, when he involuntary lets his guard down. It is a more two dimensional interpretation of the character than you may have seen before, and all the better for it

The film is a true ensemble piece though, featuring, among others, Gal Gadot who, sadly, isn’t given a huge amount to do, Tom Bateman, who plays Poirot’s friend Bouc with a youthful exuberance which just about conceals the true man inside, and Annette Bening, who brilliantly plays Bouc’s mother, seething with disdain at her sons life choices.

We also have Russell Brand, who I must confess I didn’t even recognise until halfway through the film. It is a far more restrained performance than we would be used to from him and hints that his film career may not be dead and buried yet.

It would, however, I believe be improper to talk about Death on the Nile without talking about Armie Hammer, despite how much 20th Century Studios may want you to forget he’s in it. 

I have to say, when Death on the Nile was initially delayed I suspected it would be because they were going to recast his role, much in the way Kevin Spacey was replaced in All the Money in the World, and indeed as is rumoured to be happening to Hammer himself in Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins.

On watching the film it is clear why that hasn’t happened, especially when couple with a global pandemic, however it is also clear that the producers and distributers needed time to decide how best to handle the allegation. The strategy they seem ton have landed on is to all but scrub him from all promotional campaigns in the vain hope that audiences forget that he’s there.

I’ll admit that his presence did make me feel uncomfortable. Having to watch a man accused of sexual assault, of branding a past partner, and, amongst a long list of other disturbing acts, of violent sexual fantasies including rape and cannibalism is a difficult sell, especially when his role consists, in part, of him groping his wife.

On a purely logistical level I understand why he wasn’t removed from the film. He has a lot of screen time, and has dialogue with most of the other characters in the film, to the point where getting all the necessary people involved all together at the same time, would have been virtually impossible

I also understand why the film wasn’t dropped. By the time the allegations surfaced filming had wrapped, and the best part of $90,000,000 dollars had been spent on it.

But this will be scant consolation to his accusers, and the distributers strategy of merely ignoring the fact he was in it feels insufficient. 

I understand that there would be legal issues surrounding it, seeing as Hammer has not been yet been officially charged with anything, but it is time that Hollywood actually started acting on its promises to be better. 

To not address it in anyway, is a failure.

Overall Death on the Nile is a decent film, but one which never really threatens to be better than that. By the time the pace picks up the damage has already been done by the laborious first act, and as great as Branaghs performance is, the stink of controversy will, ultimately, be what this adaption is remembered for most.