It feels cruel. After seeing "Sad Cypress" one of the most beloved Poirot mysteries and finding it somewhat disappointing, I now really enjoy one of the more disliked episodes in the series. While not fantastic, "Blue Train" has of the things I enjoy in a mystery, and a couple of things I wasn't expecting but really took a shine to. And yes, sadly, I will spend nearly the entire review comparing it to "Sad Cypress". The plot concerns the murder of an American heiress (Jaime Murray) who is murdered on a train in the South of France (unsurprisingly, she's played by a British actress). Ironically, with this one exception, the cast is excellent. Elliot Gould is often stuck playing the same jovial part (which he does very well), but here also gets saddled with some emotional scenes, after the death of his character's daughter, and completely sells them. Lindsay Duncan and Tom Harper are dorkily hilarious as one of the strangest and yet loving couples in the shows history. James D'Arcy broods handsomely and yet strangely like-ably (he was also great in "The Moving Finger") as Ruth's ex-husband. Georgina Rylance is a very likable sidekick to David Suchet's Poirot, Roger Lloyd Pack nails the choleric detective, and Alice Eve is simply a delight. I just really enjoyed the characters and actors in this scenario. The clues were interesting, and logistically it made sense. The only weak point I think were the murderers' and their motivations'. Both characters; the secretary (Nicholas Farrell) and the maid (Bronagh Gallagher); were side-lined throughout, and while I understood where they were, I can't believe that there are two people who steal and murder just for the fun of it, and the whole denouement with Farrell trying to kill Katherine (Rylance) did not feel right. That said the exposition of the murderer and confrontation with all the suspects was masterfully orchestrated (something Sad Cypress doesn't even have). Generally, what I like so much about this one are the suspects. In Sad Cypress, there barely are any, and they're all very dour and sad. Here, they actually have lives and interact. Sad Cypress left me feeling disconnected because all the characters did was bottle up their feelings. It was a master class in repression, but it wasn't very entertaining to watch. Here, we got to see people actually act. The actors acted in both versions, but here so did the characters. I definitely enjoyed this more, but seeing the other reviews here, I don't know if I should recommend it. (Also note the way the director uses cigarette smoke obsessively in many scenes.)
