The Mystery of the Blue Train

Screening well over a year since the previous episode (The Hollow), Mystery of the Blue Train was the New Year offering that opens season 10 ahead of the remaining episodes all coming at the end of Q2 and start of Q3 in 2006. Boxsetting the series as I am, it is odd to think of it being so fragmented like this, but this was a time when it became more of event-television for ITV. This opening episode perhaps did not sit well with me because I did not give it those 15 or so months between episodes, but rather only a day or so after finishing season 9, I watched this one. The main impact for me was that the very nicely staged and presented episode of The Hollow, made the more frantic direction of Blue Train strike me as odd and rather alienating.

I shouldn't really be talking about the presentation before the content, but I did find it to be too different from the style that I have come to prefer. Here we have too many odd camera angles, a bit too much swapping of focal points, and a generally busier presentation that I would have liked; the editing adds to this feeling and I did spend much of the episode wondering if all of season 10 will play out like this – and also thinking about what other shows may have influenced this sudden change in approach (some others here reference NYPD Blue and the like, and to be fair there may be something in that).

The mystery itself I found lacking in urgency and, in some ways, clarity; perhaps this was just me not following it, but it was not one that really drew me in as many other episodes have done. The cast are maybe part of this as they are surprisingly so-so. Suchet himself is as good as he generally is in this role, however the supporting cast fare better on paper than in reality. Gould is a big name but seems unsure of his character and unable to really sell it; D'Arcy, Eve, Farrell, and others are fine but nothing great – none of them really hooking me into the episode. All told it does the norms, and provides a familiar enough frame for the lazy viewer such as I to fall into, however it didn't draw me in, nor really spark with mystery or intrigue – something not helped one bit by the direction, which really didn't fit in the series.

It's easy to tell this latter-day batch of Poirot adventures are not being made by the production company that turned out the hour-long episodes and the first group of feature-length TV movies with David Suchet. Not only are Hastings, Japp and Miss Lemon gone (along with the fine actors who played them), but so is Poirot's Arte Moderne apartment building--and any reasonable sense of time and place. These were virtues; they are sorely missed.

"Mystery of the Blue Train" has a pretty good Poirot plot with some colorful supporting players and a few effective performances, but it is so badly directed--no, ATROCIOUSLY directed--as to be a headache-inducing pain to watch. There are no establishing shots of buildings, no wide shots of ballrooms and the like, and there are dozens upon dozens of off-center closeups. Furthermore, many of the closeups are hand-held, an extremely poor choice of technique for a story set in the 1930s. The director also resorts to the very tired effects of an extraordinarily unimaginative mind: virtually every set, including some exteriors, is drenched in thick, almost impenetrable smoke. This is usually "explained" by having one or more of the characters puffing away on cigarettes--so obtrusively (including many crushed out under foot) that you begin to assume that cigarette smoking has something important to do with the plot. Especially early in the film, the director grotesquely overuses shots in or of mirrors--again so frequently that it seems that it must have an important plot explanation. In the last half, set on the Riviera, there are fewer mirror shots, but now she chooses to have blurry objects in the foreground in many, many shots. At other times, we glimpse characters in the middle distance, almost hidden by objects in the near foreground. Finally, most of this stuff--hard to see, hard to follow--is reduced further in simple watchability by being edited like a rock video. I wouldn't blame anyone who, first coming to a Suchet Poirot story with this one, swearing off ever watching another.

But ultimately, Poirot and Agatha Christie win out. Even though the gathering-of-the-suspects scene is again jaggedly edited, full of thick, opaque smoke and hampered by an overuse of extreme closeups, the story wins out over the director--who I hope never, EVER again is invited to direct an Hercule Poirot mystery.

At 53 minutes on streaming, captions say Duke Ellington. It is Sing Sing Sing, Benny Goodman's famous recording from 1937. I kept feeling confused during this episode. But the train and the beautiful scenery in Nice make it memorable. I would have liked to know more about the history of the ruby. I tried to put myself in Katherine's shoes and I don't know if I would so easily fallen in with Poirot as a companion. I'm also surprised at the French police giving Poirot the lead in the investigation. There are a lot of good actors in this episode, so many I felt like it was being set up as Orient Express lite.

POIROT has been cherished by Agatha Christie fans for keeping close to the original novel 9 times out of 10. For some reason, 3 of the 4 episodes this season have changed the plot until it's unrecognizable. Will the faithful Poirot ever return? Not very likely-- unfortunately, the faithful Poirot seems to have ended when Agatha Christie's daughter died. Matthew Pritchard says his grandmother wouldn't have minded the changes-- he is 99% of the time wrong, but he may have been right this time. Agatha Christie said several times that THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN was her worst novel ever, and she hated it. I do not share her opinion. I liked the book how it was. No changes are required if it's an Agatha Christie-- her name on the book is a guarantee that it's perfect.

The changes made in the movie are innumerable. This is a complete rewrite of the book-- it's the NEMESIS of the Poirot season. Did the screenwriter read the book? However, if you put the changes behind you and try to sit back and enjoy the movie, you may end up liking it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it was very gripping, very compelling and fun. Story wise, this adaptation of The Mystery of the Blue Train is disappointing, the plot changes are a great many and some parts were rather hard to follow. Plus I found some of the final solution on the contrived side, and the direction flawed. Flaws aside, the locations, scenery, photography, costumes and sets are gorgeous and picturesque and the train itself is imposing. The music has real flair to it as well, the script has its amusing and thoughtful moments and I thought the acting in general was fine. David Suchet of course is exceptional, and Elliot Gould is good as Rufus. James D'Arcy is very handsome and acts well, the character of Derek Kettering is rather unlikeable at first, but later you believe that he is innocent. Georgina Rylance is sweet and alluring as Katherine, Lindsay Duncan is delightful and Jaime Murray is attractive enough as Ruth. I was not a fan though of Nicholas Farrell's Knighton, the character I felt wasn't developed that well and Farrell couldn't seem to do anything with it. Overall, an uneven adaptation but in terms of production values and some good performances it is worth seeing. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox