2023 Reviews – A Haunting in Venice

Holey moley, what a quick turnaround for Kenneth Branagh, and his moustaked-sleuth. It’s only been a year and a half since Poirot was investigating a death on the Nile. I like these movies, as fanciful star-studded fluff, while I also feel like I’m learning about the famed works of Agatha Christie and the tales of her most cherished detective 👍 A good way to spend a couple of hours.

Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) has finally embraced retirement. He has set down in Venice, Italy, and ignores the plethora of troubled peoples clambering at his door every morning for the chance to be the world-famous detective’s next client. When an old friend, author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), invites Poirot to debunk a séance to save her embarrassment for her upcoming book, Poirot stumbles upon another whodunit, with a little bit more. The historic orphanage they find themselves in is said to be haunted, and this overnight stay will bring the ghosts out, as Poirot is challenged in his skepticism, while he must keep his wits about him to discover his next murderer.

This movie is creepy 😨 I got shivers often. And even though I’m a soft touch, I will remind you that I saw Doctor Sleep in cinemas – the follow-up to one of the most terrifying movies of all time, in The Shining – and I think this was more startling. I’ve actually also rewatched Hereditary recently, and this movie gave me the same shivers thereafter, just thinking back on it and trying to work out what each character knew and were motivated by at any given moment. I should’ve known going in that this was a possibility – the title has ‘haunting’ in it for goodness sakes – but I took it for granted that director Branagh would have the horror genre to lean on, to infuse with his standard murder mystery. Ah, but it only took me three-quarters to realise that for all the spooks, this movie’s plot had given Poirot an out, and the strange supernatural goings on could be explained away rationally by an earlier concussion, so I calmed down. I had imagined at one point that the boy would turn out to be a figment, keeping his father company in death; but then, too many people were interacting with Leopold Ferrier (Jude Hill), so that was unlikely. No, the boy is just precocious – and the only one ultimately left to trust, adamant that the hauntings are real by first-account. I also thought, ahead of time, that this movie would hold one of those stories where once the case is solved, there’s still just one nagging occurrence that can’t be dismissed with logic, left for us and Poirot to wonder about in the wee hours of the morning – but I’m more satisfied with this actual ending, where we can wonder all we like, but Poirot leaves the case confident enough in its conclusion to completely put it behind him 👍

Michelle Yeoh, the most recent Best Actress Oscar winner, has got some heavy-lifting to do in this movie early, but then it’s a real shame that she doesn’t hang around for longer – I was enjoying her character very much. And, I like Jamie Dornan – I’ve never seen those Fifty Shades of Grey movies, but recent work in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and Belfast makes him someone for me to keep an eye on; although, his character really hasn’t got much to do here, for the screentime he’s allotted. Camille Cottin is probably the stand-out, if I were to pick one, and I like Kelly Reily getting big roles such as this. Tina Fey also makes a sturdy contribution, but I don’t know if she ever stops being Tina Fey.

Fey’s character motivation ends up being to organise a ruse with the means of exposing Poirot as the fraud she thinks he is…? She believes that if he can’t decipher the ‘parlour tricks’ of Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), it will add a more salacious detail to her book? Risky-risky. What if, instead, the story had gone down the path of Ms. Oliver and Vitale (Riccardo Scamarcio) being in cahoots as a means of bringing Poirot out of retirement, to have a look at the crime scene, for former policeman Vitale always suspected foul play, and Ms. Oliver knew that Poirot would only attend the party if he was lured under the guise of another interest? If Poirot spots something out of the ordinary and starts picking at Alicia’s case, then that’s a win for everyone; but if the evening’s guests, including Poirot, are seduced by Joyce’s craft, then Oliver still has her book? The way Poirot often solves these cases is quickly, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this was indeed the revealed motivations behind these characters, and I missed something when I blinked 😆

Watching this, I was reminded that James Bond hit his straps with the third movie, and I’m confident in saying that this is the best of Branagh’s Poirot trilogy so far. Branagh uses a lot of unconventional camera angles, and with the horror elements adding to this murder mystery, the movie has more to offer, and delivers more in execution. The fact that A Haunting in Venice is actually shot on location adds so much to the atmosphere; more than the green screens, perhaps forced upon production through COVID, for Death on the Nile. Branagh might be at his best as Poirot too, or, because it’s now been three movies, the actor and character have fused together for me, and I can see them as one. The title for this movie has also been changed from the original novel called Hallowe’en Party, and I think that’s for the better, but you really could’ve named this movie ‘Apples & Honey’, and still it would’ve served to cover for the content to follow. 3.5