2 Problems Hold This Movie Back

Beautiful film, fun, has heart, some spooky imagery, and a kid character you actually don’t hate!—but here are 2 key elements that hold it back from being very good.

1) MISSING SCENES
There seemed to be a few vital scenes missing. From the time we discover Ariadne Oliver is a jerk to the time Poirot gathers the suspects and announces whodunnit, it felt like there were some pieces of investigation missing. It’s very abrupt. The film relies too much on handicapping Poirot’s psyche and using his visions to simply unlock his omniscience, instead of using deduction. The visions were cool but Poirot should have been shown investigating clues more. It’s no fun when the detective says “So-and-So did it because X, Y, and Z” without not just establishing X, Y, and Z but by investigating them. A good 10-15 minutes of red herrings and derring-do and connecting the dots would have helped this film a lot. As it is, it’s a little unsatisfying as a mystery even though it does all hang together. There wasn’t enough suspense generated for the fireworks, in other words.

2) THE MEDIUM WAS SMALL
Home truth: the medium was a key character but the actress wasn’t up to the job. Sure, it was a little silly that an Englishwoman named Joyce Reynolds would have THAT thick of a Chinese accent, but whatever—the problem is in the performance. I actually like Yeoh a lot but she, at least in this English-speaking role, couldn’t deliver the goods. Shockingly noticeably so when the character does a 180 and tells Poirot to lighten up. That moment would have been fantastic with someone who could actually pull it off. She really blew that scene, her enunciation was terrible and her body language was confusing. She also looked embarrassingly silly during the seance itself. Granted, she wasn’t helped with the direction and the spinning chair. Oh, boy. That scene was too silly for words.