Someone Scream Murder??

Have you ever watched the motion picture version of a book you loved more than any other?? There is something both incredible and tragic about watching one of your beloved books squeezed into a movie that is realistically phenomenal yet absolutely devastating in accuracy. Last night was one of those incredible and tragic nights for me.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is one of those books that leaves you thinking after the plot and story has ended. All of a sudden, all of the details are clicking into place, making what was once a jumbled and befuddling puzzle a crystal clear surprise!

This image provided by John Keogh.

This Agatha Christie piece is the tenth of many in a series of murder-mystery novels starring the ever-so-intelligent detective, Hercule Poirot. This novel takes place on a train with a variety of unique and seemingly unconnected passengers, including Detective Poirot. 

When the train gets caught in a snow storm, becomes stranded, and one of the passengers is mysteriously murdered, questions arise, lives are investigated, and the past stirs up connections to the present that are only capable of being uncovered by this remarkable detective. With the tensions rising and worries of finding the murderer surging, Poirot is forced to discover the truth before the train is rescued from the storm and pulled up to the next station. 

Unfortunately, not everyone is in love with Christie's work. Anthony Lane of the New Yorker stated in an article regarding Murder on the Orient Express, "...In many of her [Christie's] stories, the murder should technically be logged as the second death, the life of the prose having been snuffed out long before that of the victim." 

Whether it is because I have been newly introduced to murder-mysteries or that this one man is not one of the couple billion people whom have read Christie's novels as explained in his article, Lane is adamant that Christie's work is insufficient in comparison to other famous writers of the genre.

When I originally read Murder on the Orient Express, yes, I found that the book was a very quick read with simple language to follow (not including the interestingly difficult foreign names that took some time to decipher) and a continuous flow of events. From my point of view, I do not entirely agree with Lane's perspective considering the fact that Christie's novel includes so many details and aspects that are required for the reader to fully understand the characters, the actions and events, and the overall solution to the mystery - and the murder, of course. 

This book had some hairs standing on the back of my neck, especially since I read this book at night before going to bed - a very poor decision for those of you whom are easily frightened. In regards to my movie night last evening however, every single hair on my neck was sticking straight up with terror at the marvelous use of flashbacks when the mystery was solved. What I found scary when reading the book was absolutely petrifying while watching the movie (the door to our dorm room was definitely locked before going to bed last night). The rest of the movie was fascinating with its pulchritudinous scenery and background images! Every single scene had shockingly detailed and brilliant graphic features, making for an almost overly realistic film for the viewer. Despite the additional scenes plopped into the movie that were not originally in the book, the overall quality of the film was well done and did its job of rattling the viewers' bones. 

This video provided by 20th Century Fox.