If viewers can get past Hercule
Poirot’s extraordinarily long (and awful) mustache in the 2017 film, Murder on the Orient Express,
listening closely to some of the detective’s choice observations on human
nature and ethics can deliver philosophical dividends. Indeed, Poirot admits to
being able to see the world only as it should be, which enables him to detect
even small physical (and psychological) aberrations, even concerning eggs for
breakfast, and so he has become, as he unabashedly states, the world’s best detective.
After having solved the case on the stopped train, however, he realizes that
even his “gift” at detection is not fully in line with how things should be,
and so he compromises with his austere ethical standards because he finds
himself in a “gray area,” ethically speaking.
The full essay is at "Murder on the Orient Express."
