A Haunting in Venice: Film Review
Kenneth Branagh is back as famed detective Hercule Poirot in his third Agatha Christie movie adaptation, A Haunting in Venice, which puts a spooky spin on the classic murder mystery format.
The whodunnit, very loosely based on Christie’s novel Halloween Party, is set in Italy in 1947, 10 years after the events of Death on the Nile. Belgian detective Poirot (Branagh) is now retired from solving mysteries. However, his friend, novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), lures him out to attend a Halloween seance conducted by renowned psychic Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) at a haunted palazzo, which was once an orphanage where children died. When somebody is killed during the party, it makes the guests wonder if it’s “the children’s vendetta” or the work of someone in their midst.
Naturally, there’s a nasty storm trapping them all inside the haunted building. This gives Poirot plenty of time to dust off his sleuthing skills and investigate the suspects and the clues. The line-up includes opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), her doctor Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and his son Leopold (Jude Hill), and Rowena’s housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin), among others.
I’ve heard many call A Haunting in Venice the best film in Branagh’s Poirot trilogy. This is true but the bar wasn’t that high in the first place! It is only slightly better than Nile and Murder on the Orient Express. The supernatural edge makes it feel fresh and exciting, although I was expecting it to be much scarier than it is. There are a few minor thrills when the narrative could have done with more effective scares to liven it up.
These stories follow the same structure every time – Poirot goes around each suspect and investigates them, searches the area for clues and comes out with his big reveal in front of them all at the end. If you like that format, then you will probably like A Haunting in Venice. However, I found this routine quite a slog because we basically go on a tour of characters delivering big, expositional monologues. The end reveal is still great fun though.
It doesn’t help that the suspects are rather dull and thinly written stereotypes. The only members of the cast who really shine are Yeoh, suitably spooky as the medium, Fey, a cheeky sidekick for Poirot, and Branagh himself as the detective. Poirot made me laugh the most (he was given some hilarious lines) but he was also the one most disturbed by the spooky goings-on. Dornan, who presumably signed on after working with Branagh on Belfast, is totally wasted here.
A Haunting in Venice has an impressive cast and gorgeous visuals but its narrative is simply not exciting enough.
In cinemas Friday 15th September