Turning Agatha Christie murder mysteries into popular cinema is proving quite lucrative. So it’s not surprising that for the third time Kenneth Branagh has teamed with writer Michael Green to adapt Christie’s late (1969) novel Hallowe’en Party for A Haunting in Venice. The unsettling supernatural thriller follows the success of Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022). Branagh again assumes the role of famed detective Hercule Poirot.
It’s 1947. Poirot now lives in Venice, retired and in self-imposed exile. His experiences in crime, investigation and seeing the worst in humanity via World War II have caused him to give up. Even though people queue up to see him to try to talk about their individual cases, he refuses to acknowledge them. He has a bodyguard to ensure that others don’t interfere with his worry-free lifestyle. Then he receives a visit from an old friend, the world’s number one mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey). She has seen something she can’t explain and she wants Poirot to join her at a séance. Despite his better judgment, the celebrated sleuth is intrigued and reluctantly agrees. The venue is a decaying, haunted palazzo, owned by famed opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). It is where Drake’s daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson) died in mysterious circumstances. Then, when one of the guests is murdered … and Poirot goes to work.
Despite the picturesque backdrop, I didn’t particularly care about the characters. I wanted to know more about them and their backstories. Instead, I simply had to figure out whatever I could. This is a bunch of people with issues and agendas. Of course, it’s convoluted and figuring out the mystery was never going to be easy. I thought the pacing was a problem. It was too slow, laborious even. I would have liked more to happen.
On the plus side, the thing that stands out about A Haunting in Venice is its atmosphere. An air of foreboding makes it clear all is not right.
Kenneth Branagh displays Poirot’s standoffish self-importance well. Tina Fey knows how to exude entitlement. I was also taken by the performance of Leopold Ferrier as a precocious but intelligent boy, a troubled doctor’s son.
However, while satisfactorily addressing the mystery’s diverse threads to reach a plausible conclusion, I didn’t greatly care for the journey the film took me on.
Alex First
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- Murder on the Orient Express – movie review
- Death on the Nile – movie review
- All is True – movie review
Alex First is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.