Year of Release: 2023
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Kelly Reilly, Camille Cottin, Jude Hill, Riccardo Scamarcio, Amir El-Masry, Fernando Piloni, Rowan Robinson, Emma Laird, Vanessa Ifediora, Kyle Allen, Ali Khan
Genre: Crime, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
Actor, producer, director Kenneth Branagh has returned with another tome in the series of Agatha Christie adaptions he has been tackling since 2017. This time around, he and his screenwriter partner Michael Green adapt the novel Hallowe'en Party, originally published in 1969, and reposition it as a ghost story taking place in Venice. The narrative once again focuses on Hercule Poirot, whom we find living in Venice, retired in 1947. His peaceful retirement is challenged when mystery writer Ariadne Oliver convinces Poirot to attend a séance at the palazzo of a famed opera singer by the name of Rowena Drake. Ariadne wants to unmask Joyce Reynolds, a former army nurse, turned famed medium, as a fraud. The palazzo is believed to be haunted, since it was previously an orphanage where children were locked and abandoned when the city dealt with plague. The opera singer wants to communicate with her recently deceased daughter (she apparently has committed suicide). The guests include Maxime Gerard (the former fiancé of Rowena's daughter), family doctor Leslie Ferrier and his son Leopold, and Joyce's assistant, Desdemona. While the séance initially impresses everyone witnessing it, Poirot soon realizes the mechanics behind it, exposing Joyce and what turns out to be two assistants who rigged the place. Things however take a darker turn, and Joyce is killed, while Poirot himself is victim of a murder attempt. Poirot decides to lock up the palazzo (with the assistance of his bodyguard), and investigate how Joyce's murder took place. As it turns out, everyone has connections with each other, that were not as apparent as they may have seen.
Unlike his two prior adaptions of Agatha Christie novels, Kenneth Branagh manages to create a chilling and darker atmosphere with "A Haunting in Venice", toying the audience with the concept of a possible ghost story that may finally be a foible for Poirot's unbeatable pragmatism and logic. For the most part of its narrative, the director does manage to illustrate a claustrophobic and ominous atmosphere, something that the production design and location itself greatly enhances. Some of the issues with the film itself lie with the fact that the characters have very little human tissue to them, aside from the one-line descriptions that summarize/introduce them. There's more to uncover from all these characters and their motivations, but sadly the duration and structure of the film isn't focused on these developments. Poirot himself is coincidentally the character that comes across as a far more dimensional and compelling presence, as Kenneth Branagh portrays him as someone who wants to be away from the attention of prying eyes, someone who feels exhausted and wants to enjoy his retirement (a bit like someone who is recovering from war wounds). The whole aspect of "who did it" is equally well built out, and the film doesn't falter from the expected Poirot process and final reveal, but the real winning hand is the diverse and effective cast Kenneth Branagh brings together. Possibly less packed with flashy stars as the previous adaptations, this feature manages to give Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and the always underrated Kelly Reilly, interesting characters to play. The production team is equally solid, including the cinematography from Haris Zambarloukos, score from Hildur Gudnadottir, production design from John Paul Kelly and costume design by Sammy Sheldon. While not necessarily a fresh take on Agatha Christie's material, it's nonetheless a film worth watching.
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