This review contains spoilers!
I was so excited when I learned that A&E were airing a new version of Death on the Nile with David Suchet; it is the best of the Poirot novels in my opinion. This movie, while not at all a bad movie, disappoints, especially to fans of the older film. This movie starts out with a passionate love scene between Simon Doyle and Jackie de Bellfort... We learn right away of their financial problems and it seems all too neat when Simon dumps Jackie for the rich beauty, Linnet Doyle. I was rather disappointed in the characterization of Linnet... I simply didn't imagine her as a platinum blonde... Anyways, Jakcie hounds the newly weds during their honeymoon... then, while on the nile, Linnet is shot while sleeping.
I have to admit that this was a good made-for-TV-production, however there are too many give aways to who the murderer was... in the old movie, Jackie and Simon were the last ones we suspected, as they had a cast iron alibi... In this one, one knows right away that they were in it together. Prolonged camera shots on facial expressions, reactions to certain incidents, and the fact that Poirot all but said that the fake shooting scene that gave the murderers their alibi had to have been planned! The one thing that I liked about this production, more than the older one, is the ending, which has a Romeo and Juliet quality to it... After being found out, Jackie and Simon (on a stretcher because of a gun shot on his leg) exit the boat, Jackie kneals down to kiss Simon muttering "I Love yous" and so-forth, when she pulled out a gun and shot him and herself. Poirot admits having known the gun was in Jackie's possession and was almost as if he was finally letting them escape to find peace together... We see their bodies laying on the pavement, and then a flashback to them dancing, happily and lovingly, in Jackie's thread bare flat.
I was so excited when I learned that A&E were airing a new version of Death on the Nile with David Suchet; it is the best of the Poirot novels in my opinion. This movie, while not at all a bad movie, disappoints, especially to fans of the older film. This movie starts out with a passionate love scene between Simon Doyle and Jackie de Bellfort... We learn right away of their financial problems and it seems all too neat when Simon dumps Jackie for the rich beauty, Linnet Doyle. I was rather disappointed in the characterization of Linnet... I simply didn't imagine her as a platinum blonde... Anyways, Jakcie hounds the newly weds during their honeymoon... then, while on the nile, Linnet is shot while sleeping.
I have to admit that this was a good made-for-TV-production, however there are too many give aways to who the murderer was... in the old movie, Jackie and Simon were the last ones we suspected, as they had a cast iron alibi... In this one, one knows right away that they were in it together. Prolonged camera shots on facial expressions, reactions to certain incidents, and the fact that Poirot all but said that the fake shooting scene that gave the murderers their alibi had to have been planned! The one thing that I liked about this production, more than the older one, is the ending, which has a Romeo and Juliet quality to it... After being found out, Jackie and Simon (on a stretcher because of a gun shot on his leg) exit the boat, Jackie kneals down to kiss Simon muttering "I Love yous" and so-forth, when she pulled out a gun and shot him and herself. Poirot admits having known the gun was in Jackie's possession and was almost as if he was finally letting them escape to find peace together... We see their bodies laying on the pavement, and then a flashback to them dancing, happily and lovingly, in Jackie's thread bare flat.