Euphemia Bouc is a character in the 2022 film Death on the Nile, based on the 1937 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. She is portrayed by Annette Bening.
Background[]
Euphemia is an American artist and the mother of Bouc, a friend of the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. She invites Poirot to join them on a cruise along the Nile River, where they encounter a group of wealthy and eccentric passengers, including Linnet Ridgeway, a young heiress who has recently married Simon Doyle, the former fiancé of her best friend Jacqueline de Bellefort. Euphemia is fascinated by Linnet's beauty and fortune and tries to befriend her, but Linnet rebuffs her attempts. Euphemia also has a brief encounter with Andrew Pennington, Linnet's American trustee, who is secretly embezzling her money.
Appearance[]
When Linnet is found murdered in her cabin, Poirot begins to investigate the case, with the help of Bouc and Euphemia. Euphemia claims that she was in her cabin at the time of the murder and that she heard a gunshot. She also says that she saw Pennington leaving Linnet's cabin earlier that night and that he looked nervous. Poirot suspects that Euphemia may be hiding something, and questions her about her past. He discovers that Euphemia was once married to a wealthy man named Henry Bouc, who died in a car accident, leaving her a large inheritance. However, she lost most of it in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and became an alcoholic. She later met and married Bouc's father, a French aristocrat who owned the steamship company that operates the cruise. He died shortly after their marriage, leaving Euphemia in charge of the business. Poirot also learns that Euphemia has a history of mental instability and that she once attempted suicide by shooting herself in the chest.
Poirot eventually reveals that Euphemia is the murderer of Linnet Ridgeway. He explains that Euphemia was obsessed with Linnet, and wanted to take her place as the richest and most beautiful woman in the world. She also resented Pennington for stealing Linnet's money and wanted to expose him. She devised a complex plan to kill Linnet and frame Jacqueline for the crime, using a pearl-handled pistol that belonged to her late husband Henry. She bribed one of the ship's crew members to smuggle the gun on board and hid it in her cabin. She also forged a letter from Pennington to Linnet, asking her to meet him in her cabin at midnight. She then sneaked into Linnet's cabin before midnight and shot her in the head with the pistol. She then returned to her own cabin, and fired another shot into her chest wound, making it look like she was attacked by an intruder. She then threw the gun into the Nile River, hoping that it would never be found.
However, Poirot was able to find several clues that incriminated Euphemia. He noticed that Euphemia had a faint scar on her chest from her previous suicide attempt, which matched the bullet wound she claimed to have received from the intruder. He also found traces of gunpowder on Euphemia's hands and clothes, indicating that she had fired a gun recently. He also recovered the pearl-handled pistol from the riverbed, using a magnet attached to a fishing rod. He compared the bullets from the gun with those found in Linnet's body and Euphemia's wound and confirmed that they were from the same weapon. He also examined the forged letter from Pennington to Linnet and noticed that it was written in Euphemia's handwriting. He confronted Euphemia with his evidence, and she confessed to everything. She said that she killed Linnet out of envy and hatred and that she felt no remorse for her actions. She then tried to shoot Poirot with another gun that she had hidden in her purse, but he managed to disarm her before she could fire. She was then arrested by the Egyptian police, and taken away to face justice.
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