Did anyone watch Masterpiece Mystery's presentation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express last night?
This is one of my favorite Poirot mysteries (recently reviewed here) so I was interested in seeing how this version was done (I haven't seen any movie versions of Christie's novels up until now). It was good and portrayed the "whodunit" piece well; but I was disturbed by something that I don't recall reading in the novels: Hercule Poirot's devout Catholicism.
Not that I'm against Catholicism or any religion -- far from it -- but since I don't recall reading about that in the Poirot stories I've read (and I've read quite a few) I'm not sure why they chose to include this in the movie. They made it have a bearing on Poirot's decision-making and it didn't sit well with me -- Poirot is all about logic and his "little gray cells", not emotion.
I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts about this.
I've only read one Poirot novel and this wasn't it.
ReplyDeleteI watched the movie last night though. I enjoyed it but for some reason thought the story was lighter than it was. I was surprised by the ending.
Murder on the Orient Express is one of my favourites too! Don't remember any Catholicism either
ReplyDeleteI saw it. It's called "poetic license," I think. IMHO, the entire story is really about the nature of justice (and if you haven't read it I'm not leaking any spoilers); when he has nowhere else to turn in deciding what to do, he prays. That didn't bother me so much because well, even though it wasn't in the novel, it fit in the film. What bothers me more is the subject of a recent post I made about having Miss Marple as the main detective in a story she wasn't originally written into.
ReplyDelete(sorry...didn't mean to be so long winded, Sue!)
No worries, Nancy -- I see your point and it did fit the film, I was just bothered by the fact they altered Poirot's character that much.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to see if they do that again in next week's movie (The Third Girl)
I'll have to check out your Miss Marple post -- why would they put her into a story like that?