Hear from Michelle Coyne – What I am reading and watching
Author: Michelle Coyne – Business Coordinator
What I'm reading and watching...
Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express – Movie
As an avid bookworm will tell you, movies based on books are never as good as the books themselves. So as a book lover myself, I took up the challenge to watch these three movie adaptations of famous Agatha Christie novels and determine if the movies really lived up to the books.
Murder on the Orient Express – Book
Having read all three of these Agatha Christie novels (and many others besides) and after begrudgingly agreeing to watch the first of these three movies Murder on the Orient Express, I was pleasantly surprised at how the movies still managed to capture my interest despite my knowing the ending before the movie even began.
Death on the Nile – Movie
This movie had some intentional differences from the book that kept “the little grey cells” interested scene after scene. The biggest difference of course is Poirot himself, who turns from a short, silly-looking Belgian with an egg-shaped head and a rather magnificent moustache to Kenneth Branagh director and star of the film, a tall, lean Brit with an evolving moustache that amusingly changes shape, size and colour in each film. The other glaring change is to his famous meticulous deductions, which are somewhat glossed over in the movies, which seems a shame.
The second offering Death on the Nile I was excited to watch. While the film overall was still entertaining, I couldn’t help thinking a lot had been changed or modernized to reach a wider demographic- possibly unnecessarily so. The costumes, landscapes and sets however are definitely worth watching this film for.
Last but not least, we get to A Haunting in Venice, which I insisted we stream so we could finally have some good popcorn with a film. Inspired by the Agatha Christie novel Hallowe’en Party, this film makes some broad leaps away from the novel, changing the setting to an entirely different country and starting off on a darker path sooner. Then there are the twists, ones you don’t see coming, but no spoilers here.
So does the age-old adage hold true? Are the books really better than the movies? In this case, I would say definitely so, but you’ll just have to read the books and watch the movie to find out for yourself.
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