A Haunting in Venice

Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) has retired and is living in Venice where he is visited by his old friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) who asks him to come to a seance held in a palatial Venetian house by top medium played by Michelle Yeoh who is seeking to speak with the spirit of a girl who apparently killed herself jumping from the building. Oliver wants Poirot to expose Yeoh as a fraud or start believing in the afterlife. He attends and there is a murder.

Branagh's third go at a Poirot story and depending on your fondness for these things, potentially the best. It is very different from the previous 2 mysteries in that whilst the usual interviews and ripping up of alibis takes place, there is a very distinct supernatural element here, which may or may not be real. What Branagh does though is use this to create a much darker and decidedly well crafted spooky story (he should definitely make a straight ghost story) which is looking both for a murderer and proof that the ghostly bit is true or false. So whilst the gloss and usual extravagant beautifully dressed characters might be missing there is still a great mystery to enjoy. I hope he does another one.

Poirot, now retired, and living in exile, is convinced by his friend Ariadne Oliver, to look into the honesty and integrity of a medium, who's set to visit bereaved mother Rowena Drake.

If you're going into this one hoping for authenticity, you may be a little disappointed, I recently read the book, and aside from a few names and events, it is only very loosely based on the book.

Authenticity to one side, I really did enjoy this movie, talk about an interesting choice, you can understand why Death on The Nile and Orient Express were chosen, but Halloween Party doesn't exactly lend itself well to an adaptation, but overall it works very well, plenty of plus points.

The main winner, the visuals, with Venice they were never going to fail I guess, it looks sensational, but the camera angles and focuses are really nice, very atmospheric and suitably sinister, a shame a few scenes couldn't have been just a tad brighter. The masks, robes and costumes looked so good, they really did give it a Halloween vibe.

I'd say this is Brannagh's most accomplished turn as Poirot so far, the toned down moustache has definitely made a difference, he feels more like Poirot.

Well acted all round, Kelly Reilly is no stranger to Agatha Christie, she's excellent as Rowena, and as for the young man that played Leopold, he was great.

My one gripe, Ariadne, I'm not knocking Tina Fey, she did a good job, but when you read the books, I just don't see her as an American glamour puss, I wonder if we'll see her again.

I'm awarding an extra point for the fact that Branagh chose Halloween Party, and didn't opt for Evil under The Sun or Appointment with Death, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of those was number four.

It worked well, 8/10.

A Haunting in Venice is the best of Kenneth Branagh's trilogy of Poirot adventures. This one being a smaller scale whodunit with a supernatural edge fixes any remaining issues whilst still being an engaging mystery with a satisfying answer to whodunit.

Kenneth Branagh is still endlessly entertaining as Hercule Poirot, the humour is toned down here due to the darker story and yet again he's grown as a character by the end. Each one has tested something different, first it was his morality then his humanity and here it's his sanity that is pushed to breaking point.

The cast is still undeniably star studded but still smaller than the predecessor which means no one goes unnoticed. Highlights include Tina Fey who makes for a great double act with Branagh's Poirot and Michelle Yeoh, given her best role in a Western film in ages (excluding EEAAO of course).

Mostly being confined to one smaller, interior heavy location, Branagh's direction is even better that what's come before. His trademark canted angles have never been more at home and even though the film isn't massively scary, Branagh is still able to craft some effectively uncomfortable moments.

Thanks to the location this franchise is finally free of the distracting CG that's been its biggest flaw. Being majority practical just makes the whole thing infinitely more immersive and means the stylish visual composition on display isn't having to make up for shoddy effects.

Whereas the last two Branagh Agatha Christie adaptations were movies I sort of liked at first and started to realise were "meh" over time, this latest entry is one that I recognised as mediocre upon first viewing.

Granted, it was really refreshing to see that this time, the filmmakers clearly put effort into the locations and production design. The film looks authentic and gorgeous, as opposed to its predecessors that were over reliant on unnecessary CGI backgrounds.

The story does have some interesting ideas and compelling character interactions, but they unfortunately take a back seat half the time. For the other half, we get a lot of weak attempts at horror and red herring plot points that really do amount to nothing.

I don't know what happened with the performances, but half of them are pretty great and the others are...well, awful. The actors clearly didn't agree on what kind of movie they were in, with some thinking it ought to be straight drama and others thinking they should play it corny.

Like the previous films, this is a middling whodunnit, with all the rote machinations you expect from the genre, nothing shocking, nothing gripping, but nothing so bad as to tank the experience.

It's the definition of mediocre.

My Review- A Haunting in Venice My Rating 6/10

I was underwhelmed by Kenneth Branagh's latest interpretation of an Agatha Christie novel this one is based on her 1969 novel Halloween Party .

It was written late in the authors life to luke warm reviews one critic Robert Weaver wrote - Halloween Party is a disappointment,but with all her accomplishments is Christie can be forgiven some disappointments Poirot seems weary and so does the book.

It was filmed previously in 2010 for television starring my favourite Hercule Poirot David Suchet which I watched only after seeing A Haunting in Venice.

I must admit Kenneth Branagh who I like in some roles and not others is my least favourite characterisation of Hercule Poirot.

His first effort in 2017 Murder on the Orient Express also underwhelmed me but did exceedingly well at the box office however his last effort in 2022 Death on the Nile flopped and for me also had nothing of the grandeur or appeal of the original film adaptations.

All that needs to said about the plot line in this whodunnit is that Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot investigates a murder while attending a Halloween seance at a haunted palazzo in Venice, Italy.

I was expecting more from this new original adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel Halloween Party that's set in the mysterious and spectacular city of Venice because it's a story I didn't know and I had no preconceived expectations.

Spectacular Venice is featured in the start and conclusion of this film but it's mostly set indoors in a gloomy gothic villa that could have been built on any movie set.

A Haunting in Venice for me fails in a few aspects primarily because of its dark gothic reworking from Kenneth Branagh. It's probably his best Hercule Poirot performance but for me his interpretation of the novel lacks The Agatha Christie touch of humour, eccentric characters and is trying to be something it's not a gothic horror movie it's not really scary at all just dark and brooding.

After I saw this movie I watched the 2010 television movie Hallowe'en Party starring David Suchet my favourite Hercule Poirot that bares no resemblance to A Haunting in Venice . It's not her greatest story but the television version has humour and lightness as well as suspense and the performances are much more impressive in my opinion.

There are some interesting actors in the cast of A Haunting in Venice including Michelle Yeoh who dropped out of The action adventure 2024 film The Electric State to star in this movie. Why she chose to do this I'm not sure because her role as the clairvoyant Mrs Reynolds is more a short cameo role as is Jamie Dornan's who plays Dr Ferrier .

The main supporting role is Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver a crime writer but she didn't shine for me either. Tina Fey plays a similar role in Only Murders in the Building as Cinda Canning but that role is edgy and funny which she does best .

With a much more modest production budget of $60 million than his last Agatha Christie move Death in Venice Kenneth Branagh who also directs this movie in my view features himself as Poirot more at the expense of the ensemble characters which is a mistake in an Agatha Christie movie.