Directed by Kenneth Branagh — Screenplay by Michael Green.
Trying to play an iconic character that has been portrayed by a litany of actors is a challenge. The challenge is more than doubled when you’re also the chief creative involvement shepherding the entire production. Such is the case for Kenneth Branagh with his Agatha Christie adaptation film series, in which he plays her mustachioed Belgian star detective, Hercule Poirot. After two so-so or at best lukewarm entries with his versions of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Branagh has taken a far less well-known story and adapted it for his third attempt. So, is the third time the charm for Branagh’s Poirot? Well, I’ll say this, it is by far the most interesting of his three Poirot whodunnit adaptations thus far, even though it’s not without issues.
A Haunting in Venice is based on Agatha Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party, and in the adaptation, we find Hercule Poirot in Venice as a retired man dodging requests to take part in further cases. That is until the chatty and confident novelist Ariadne Oliver (played by Tina Fey) convinces him to take part in a séance, where the main purpose is to expose the medium (played by Michelle Yeoh) as a fraud. The séance takes place in this palazzo where the medium has been tasked with acting as a gateway between opera singer Rowena Drake (played by Kelly Reilly) and her daughter, whose death was supposedly the result of a suicide. During the evening, Poirot is attacked and another person present for the séance is found dead. Now Poirot has to figure out who’s done it, and, at the same time, try to understand if what happened during the séance is real or fake.
One thing that Branagh’s Agatha Christie adaptations always have going for them is a star-studded cast. The first two of these films were filled to the brim with actors like Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Gal Gadot, and Annette Bening. This is also true of his most recent adaptation, which includes stars such as Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, and recent Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh. Sometimes with his previous adaptations, a couple of portrayals will manage to distract me and effectively pull me out of the film either for sheer stardom or for a performance that I simply don’t buy. For this one, only Fey’s ever got close to that. Fey isn’t bad here — not at all — but there were moments wherein her era-adjusted speaking lines were delivered in a way that just felt like a Saturday Night Live-sketch (though maybe that’s a me-problem). But there is some notable and commendable supporting work here. No one will be surprised to find out that Michelle Yeoh is pitch-perfect as the film’s mysterious medium, or, essentially, the Lin Shaye (the veteran actress who plays a beloved medium in the Insidious films) of the Branagh-Poirot-verse, if I may. But I also want to highlight the work done by Jude Hill here. Hill, who was the star of Branagh’s 2021 coming-of-age film Belfast, is really fun to watch as this incredibly smart and precocious young boy with a steely confidence.
Unlike the first two adaptations, this is the first theatrically-released feature film adaptation of the source material, and, also unlike the first two Branagh-Christia films, this is essentially a horror film. Or, at the very least, the film leans into horror without ever going overboard and losing itself in it. Branagh sets the tone rather well with people disguised in black cloaks and strange masks, there is this ornate Garden of Eden clock, but also a scene with slightly spooky shadow-puppetry, and then there are flickering lights, jumpscares, the crackling of thunder, the crashing of waves, strange voices in the dark, and heavy rain. The sound work is quite good, and everything about the location feels authentic, with the Palazzo being a great location for these events. This location will help to make this film feel more timeless, as Death on the Nile, especially, suffered from unconvincing CGI-backgrounds.
Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting in Venice is easily the best and most interesting of these three Agatha Christie adaptations. Branagh captures a spooky atmosphere with his camerawork, his horror elements, and his authentic location, and, honestly, I think the only major thing holding it back is its uneven pacing. Still, Branagh’s haunted house whodunnit really works as what it wants to be. If Branagh has another one of these up his sleeves, I’d be interested in seeing it, especially if he will again be making something that feels this atmospheric.
7 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 