Kenneth Branagh returns as Agatha Christie's famed detective Hercule Poirot for a third time in 'A Haunting in Venice,' in theaters on Sept. 15.
: Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot and Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Photo by Rob Youngson. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If you enjoyed “Murder on the Orient Express” then skipped “Death on the Nile” because, frankly, Armie Hammer, Kenneth Branagh is back as super sleuth Hercule Poirot in another Agatha Christie whodunnit.
The director-star explores the author’s macabre side in “A Haunting in Venice,” which arrives just in time for scary movie season. It’s 1947 and the famous detective is in Italy, searching for peace and anonymity as he tries to escape the weight of all the death he’s witnessed. The only investigating he’s doing is figuring out if the produce guy is ripping him off on a carton of eggs. But he’s pulled back into the game when an old friend, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver , asks to help her expose master psychic Joyce Reynolds as a charlatan. For reasons not entirely clear, he agrees and it’s off to a creaky old palazzo on Halloween night where famed opera singer Rowena Drake has invited the medium to conduct a séance in an effort to communicate with her daughter, Alicia , who died under mysterious circumstances the year prior. Complicating matters: The palazzo is said to be haunted by the children left there to die long ago when it was the orphanage. You can guess the rest. Somebody ends up dead and, gosh darn it, no one is allowed to leave until Poirot finds the killer even if it takes all night! Besides the aforementioned, the list of suspects includes Alicia’s pompous ex-boyfriend , the pious housekeeper , the despairing family physician , his clever young son , Poirot’s overzealous bodyguard and the psychic’s shifty assistants . Recognizing the “goofy detective with an unplaceable accent solves a murder” genre may have reached a saturation point, Branagh and screenwriter Michael Green were wise to shake things up and try something new. Loosely based on Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party,” the story’s supernatural and horror elements add a level of intrigue. Branagh is a delight to watch as Poirot, a paragon of reason, starts to wrestle with the previously unthinkable. Is he losing his mind or could a ghost have done it? : Rowan Robinson as Alicia Drake and Kelly Reilly as Rowena Drake in 20th Century Studios' A HAUNTING IN VENICE. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.The director and his accomplices behind the camera, namely cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, editor Lucy Donaldson and composer Hildur Gudnadóttir, get a lot of mileage out of the film’s eerie setting, building suspense and producing jump scares with an effective mix of off-kilter angles, frenetic editing and spooky music. The script keeps you guessing with some unexpected twists, too. The film, unfortunately, wastes almost all of that potential. Branagh’s Venice is indeed chilling, dark and full of secrets. But he fails to populate it with an interesting mix of complex characters and motives. These suspects are as paper-thin as Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett and Professor Plum. Think about Chris Evans and Ana de Armas’ roles in “Knives Out” or Edward Norton and Janelle Monáe in “Glass Onion.” There’s no one as memorable in “A Haunting in Venice.” The ensemble cast is uneven. Yeoh and Dornan are predictably solid, if not underused, and Hill’s precociously morbid Leopold makes for a fun and formidable foil to Branagh. The ace detective is more melancholy here, but he still manages to get a few good wisecracks in. Fey, however, seems lost in a “Saturday Night Live” parody of an old-timey detective movie, and Reilly’s performance is strangely over the top. Results may vary, but the film’s shortcomings made it such a challenge for me to fully commit to the mystery that I was caught off guard by the big reveal. And if you’re not playing along, following the bread crumbs and trying to solve the murder before the guy with the funny mustache and the quips does, what is even the point?If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. By browsing this site, we may share your information with our social media partners in accordance with our
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