Violent Lovers Simon & Jackie: Oh, Who Cares

On Votaries, I discuss Death on the Nile, specifically ways to prevent Jackie and Simon from embarking on their murderous plan. 

Death on the Nile was one of my favorite books as a teen but never, not once, not for an instant, because I thought Jackie and Simon were ill-fated lovers: Oh, if only they could be together... 

In fact, one of my favorite scenes from the book is when Poirot goes to speak to Jackie and she refers to herself fatalistically: That star falls down. 

It wasn't until I saw the 1978 movie (sometime in the '80s) that I realized that I was supposed to feel sorry for them or revel in their all-consuming love or something--at least, according to those readers/producers. 

Really? Wow. I never thought that at all! 

Suchet's version goes pretty far down this road. The movie begins and ends with Simon and Jackie in their "starving artists" attic room. I guess the purpose is to highlight how happy they were before Simon decided he needed money...

I roll my eyes. Grasping, conniving, dissatisfied sociopaths. Simon was always greedy, and Jackie was always too infatuated not to have a higher opinion of herself and walk away.

I've never felt any particular interest in Bonnie and Clyde either. 

Interestingly enough, Branagh's version seems to come closer to Christie's fundamental realism than either of the others. In the confrontation with Simon and Jackie, his outraged and heart-broken Poirot doesn't paint them as star-crossed lovers but as cruel murderers...which they are! And his outrage isn't simply due to his friend's death but to their treatment of Linnet. 

I was disappointed to learn that Branagh's last Christie movie is only loosely based on one of the books--but kudos to him for at least getting Death on the Nile right! 

(I have since seen A Haunting in Venice. It is surprisingly okay. It barely resembles the book.)