Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
Sometimes you need an easy to watch crowd pleaser that tickles your curiosity and satiates your desire to secretly become a private investigator. Thankfully for those of you who find yourselves reaching for your imaginative magnifying glass from time-to-time, Kenneth Branagh is still cranking out Agatha Christie adaptations.
“In post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.”
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Writers: Michael Green, Agatha Christie
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Kelly Reilly
Release Date: September 15, 2023
IMDB
Sometimes you need an easy to watch crowd pleaser that tickles your curiosity and satiates your desire to secretly become a private investigator. Thankfully for those of you who find yourselves reaching for your imaginative magnifying glass from time-to-time, Kenneth Branagh is still cranking out Agatha Christie adaptations.
Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is in early retirement in post World War II Venice when he is visited by an old friend. Ariande Oliver (Tina Fey) is an author who has used Poirot for inspiration before and she is once again dangling a thread of intrigue in front of this grumpy mustached detective.
Oliver invites Poirot to a Halloween party hosted by Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) and attended by famed medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). After the children leave the spooky celebration, Reynolds is going to try and communicate with Rowena’s deceased daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson), who committed suicide following her ex-fiancé Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen) breaking up their engagement.
The party already has a lot of linked attendees, but as the storm rages outside and lashes the building with waves of chaos, there are still more characters crashing the gathering. Rowena’s doctor Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and his son Leopold (Jude Hill) are in the residence, as are two assistants to Reynolds and a few additional housemates. The fragile deck of unique characters becomes 52-card pickup when A MURDER (dum-dum-dummmm) leaves everyone shooketh.
The reluctant Poirot is forced to reenter his crime-solving mindset while contemplating the fact that something unnatural is curling fate around its fingers.
A Haunting In Venice has a strong cast like Branagh’s previous Agatha adaptations, but the unsung hero of this particular mystery is the setting of Venice in the middle of a tempest. The weather outside matches the mood inside, and the isolating landscape adds to the eeriness that Branagh sprinkles in throughout.
Like any good who-dun-it, you need a surprising mystery that emerges unexpectedly to stir the plot. The setup for the plot is the death of Alicia, but the surprising demise of a recently alive Halloween party guest sends everything into a frenzy. The bedlam reaches even higher levels when Poirot nearly gets killed himself.
We have a murderer in the house!
Once the stage is set, Branagh’s acting takes centerstage and the spotlight falls squarely on Poirot’s shoulders. A Haunting In Venice does an admirable job of setting the stage in a fun way so that the final two acts and ultimate unveiling of the truth honorably hit home.
A Haunting In Venice isn’t going to break the mold and infuse audiences with a newfound vigor for the genre. And that’s okay. Branagh’s third Christia story is like a well worn sweatshirt that swallows you and lets you know everything is going to be okay. You can exhale and know exactly how it’s all going to wind up. The sweatshirt may not be perfectly stitched and perhaps there are threads untwined that’d upset you if you looked closely. But out of respect for the sweatshirt and all the years it has given you, you look at it from afar and leave the deep-dive knit-picking to Poirot within the story.
Branagh is the mastermind of A Haunting In Venice and has been a busy man over the last four years. Murder On The Orient Express (2017) was a return to major filmmaking after two years of theater-based work. Since then he has had a movie released in all but one year (in 2019) and the past four years remains a fascinating study.
Artemis Fowl (2020) was an all-time flop that put Dame Judi Dench in an abomination of a movie, but a year later Branagh was on the awards circuit (alongside Jamie Dornan) with Belfast (2021). Since then it’s been Death On The Nile (2022) and A Haunting In Venice. Branagh doesn’t have anything lined up next, on the record at least. It will be curious to see what direction he is drawn in. Branagh has done superhero movies, military thrillers, Disney remakes, Disney adaptations and totally original work. Branagh is a malleable man, making his next move an interesting mystery that even Hercule Poirot may not be able to sell.
As of mid-January 2023, A Haunting In Venice is streaming on Hulu.
STANKO RATING: B
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