Agatha Christie in melody

Sometimes, all it takes is one track that stands out to make an album or soundtrack brilliant. This is the case for the twelfth collaboration between the composer Patrick Doyle and the director Kenneth Branagh (Dead Again, Much Ado About Nothing, Sleuth) with the almost 10-minute long piece called Justice, which concludes this new adaptation of the famous Agatha Christie book that brings an impressive line-up of stars to the spotlight (Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp). All the adventures of Hercule Poirot (played here by Branagh himself) end with the resolution of a crime.

Amid Poirot’s mathematical reasoning mixed with flashbacks describing the brutal murder of Johnny Depp, we find the soft arpeggios on the piano composed by Doyle that are both surprising and moving in relation to the juxtaposing images. After this considerable feat, the composer turns towards more impressionistic sonorities with the very Ravelian piano on Poirot, to the moment where the detective walks serenely towards the Nile, where a new investigation awaits.

Aside from these two remarkable themes, the music from Murder on the Orient Express meets the needs of the thriller in a classic and efficient way, as proved by the main theme which is both fiery and pernicious, describing this "death train" (The Orient Express), or even in the numerous passages where Doyle evokes mystery and darkness (Touch Nothing Else, Twelve Stab Wounds). The album ends with a little curiosity, Never Forget, in which Michelle Pfeiffer steps up to the mic to sing with a certain intensity on the theme Justice.

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