A Haunting in Venice, 2023.
Directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarcio, Michelle Yeoh, Dylan Corbett-Bader, Amir El-Masry, Fernando Piloni, Vanessa Ifediora, Esther Rae Tillotson, and Richard Price.
SYNOPSIS:
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.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, A Haunting in Venice wouldn’t exist.
While bringing Belgian master homicide detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh once again directing and starring) into the circle of mediums and possible supernatural terror, A Haunting in Venice forces the know-it-all to look past his beliefs and worldview, entertaining the idea that an afterlife and ghosts may be present among the living, which is a serviceable enough theme to overcome some fairly generic modern horror direction. It also helps that the central mystery (based on the Agatha Christie novel Hallowe’en Party) offers more twisty, murderous fun, with a slew of new suspects to figure out alongside our expert, mustached mystery solver.
In a complete 180 from Death on the Nile (the second installment in this series, with Murder on the Orient Express being the first), Kenneth Branagh (using a script from Michael Green) cuts right to the chase as a retired Hercule Poirot living in Venice circa post-World War II routinely shuts down solicitations from strangers regarding homicide cases – choosing to live a quiet, peaceful existence among some stunning scenery of the architecture and canals captured by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos) – soon after accepting an invitation to a séance alongside an author friend from the past, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), at a Gothic palazzo that was once a children’s orphanage affected by the plague, which continues to be the scene of unexplainable, seemingly otherworldly terrors.
A young woman named Alicia was found dead by suicide, reported to have gone mad, speaking of seeing ghosts. Her mother, Rowana (Kelly Reilly), has brought a supposedly credible medium in Michelle Yeoh’s Mrs. Reynolds, who claims that someone in the room murdered Alicia. Hercule Poirot doesn’t budge on his stance, but considering someone tries to kill him in the dark later that night, he becomes convinced that there is a murder mystery to solve here. Nonetheless, his retirement is put on pause.
Before getting to the supporting ensemble of suspects, it’s worth noting that Kenneth Branagh has brought a stylish directorial flair to this entry, often utilizing fisheye lens cinematography to both capture the eerie, atmospheric residence but also play up the psyche of a character who is increasingly unsure of what to believe anymore. There are clear-cut cases of murder that occur throughout the night, but also other seemingly supernatural events that can’t be explained. A moody, atmospheric score from the immensely talented Hildur Guðnadóttir further grabs and maintains intrigue.
Perhaps to a fault, A Haunting in Venice follows the otherwise reliable formula of devolving into a series of interviews, with Hercule Poirot questioning everyone from traumatized caretakers (Camille Cotton) to the palazzo assistants who may have ulterior motives, the mentally tortured family doctor (Jamie Dornan) and his oddball, far too intelligent for his own good son (Jude Law, making for a father-son Belfast reunion), a shady ex-fiancé (Kyle Allen), the woman’s depressed mother, the first responding police officer and, of course, Mrs. Reynolds who the detective has already accused of preying on the weak and vulnerable grieving for financial gain.
The connective thread here is that all these characters are mourning something, essentially carrying a metaphorical ghost. That concept is more than solid, but some of these characters are flat-out uninteresting, meaning that once it’s time to speak to each suspect in a one-on-one scenario (well, technically two-on-one as Ariadne assists the detective), there is a lull and a antsy feeling to get to that inevitable, crowd-pleasing moment where our heroic sleuth confidently stands in front of the group and lays out the whole case.
And while I’m not going to knock a series of groundbreaking mystery novels for being too predictable, it is a bit obvious whodunnit (so long as one understands the rules of how these narratives typically go and how these characters are generally written), but the performances and themes are gripping with expressive stylistic direction. Save for the well-crafted atmosphere, the haunting aspect of A Haunting in Venice leaves something to be desired, but there is another compelling, character-driven mystery and story worth telling here, once again putting the detective through a personal arc just as much as another pleasantly slick mystery.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
