It was in 1921 that Hercule Poirot went about solving his first murder in the debut novel by Agatha Christie The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

She would go on to write an impressive number of adventures for the renowned Belgian detective, with one of his most famous outings occurring in 1937 that found him on board the steam ship the Karnak in 1937’s classic Death on the Nile.

Poirot would be chomping at the bit to have been a passenger on this latest vehicle for Keira Knightley, which also finds her all at sea in troubled waters in this Netflix whodunnit.

Having just covered an emotionally heavy story, journalist Laura Blacklock (Knightley) decides to go with a lighter story next, that sees her follow up on an invitation by a rich couple who are giving a lot of their money to cancer research.

The fact that it’s taking place on their luxurious yacht doesn’t hurt, so she accepts.

Once she boards, she is amongst a guest list of the very rich and powerful, who are all there to enjoy the luxurious experience. Oh and to support the good cause too, naturally.

But despite the calmness of the waters, Laura witnesses what she believes to be a body thrown overboard. But when no one else sees it, or believes her, she soon finds herself on edge, knowing she’s on a super yacht with a killer on board.

This is Australian director Simon Stone’s follow up to his disappointing 2021 Netflix feature The Dig, and it’s an adaptation of British crime writer Ruth Ware’s second novel of the same name, published in 2016.

It is an obvious homage to the far superior Christie’s Death on the Nile, attempting to update the setting to a luxurious yacht, but sadly it’s the only appealing aspect of the film.

It starts off well enough, albeit outwardly generic, as we’re introduced to a number of the stuck up elite, played by a cast far too good for this sort of thing, including Guy Pierce, Hannah Waddingham, Kaya Scodelario, David Morrissey, Art Malik, Paul Kaye, Daniel Ings and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Stone does well in setting the scene, and building the tension, but the final third falls apart in such an embarrassing fashion, you can almost hear Christie and Poirot GOL – guffaw out loud.

To say that the film’s resolution is an exercise in the ludicrous is an understatement. It has the kind of ending that you can well imagine homes up and down the country, and all over the world, having their own Gogglebox moment by shouting their disbelief at the screen. It’s OK, let it out.

Certainly the impressive cast deserved better, especially as many of them have very little to do. You can imagine someone like Kenneth Branagh getting the most out of them, as he has with his own impressive casts for his Poirot flicks, but Stone clearly didn’t do his homework.

The director has produced the kind of film that no one likes, which after forcing such a drippy ending on its audience, makes all who witnessed it likely to resent the whole thing for wasting its time, and he has to take the majority of the blame.

You can almost hear Poirot in his summary of what happens on board decree that the real crime that took place was the making of the film itself.

There is one consolation that unlike Christie’s lasting classics, this one will sink without a trace.