“A Haunting in Venice,” another Agatha Christie movie, another old-school whodunit that doesn’t measure up to Kenneth Branagh’s amazing mustache.
“A Haunting in Venice,” Branagh’s third go-round as ace Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (and third time manning the director’s chair), is only marginally better than the previous two stale outings, 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and last year’s “Death on the Nile.
For his newest starry murder mystery, based on Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party,” Branagh challenges Poirot’s deductive mind and supernatural belief system and surrounds him with spookiness that can only spiff up a creaky plot and thin characters so much in 1947 – 10 years after “Nile” if anyone’s counting – this tale finds Poirot retired and living in Venice, Italy.
After a career of seeing the worst of humanity while solving murders and witnessing the horrors of war, the ex-detective is content gardening, hiding from potential clients and waiting for his pastry delivery (like a post-war Postmates).
“Cakes for cases,” Poirot’s friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) teases him when she comes to visit.
Plot
The world’s top mystery writer is in Venice to attend a Halloween seance held at a supposedly haunted palazzo, which was once an orphanage but is now said to house the spirits of tortured children.
The palazzo’s owner is opera star Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), a soprano who hasn’t sung a note since her ill daughter Alicia suffered a broken engagement and bizarrely took a header into a nearby canal, and she’s hired renowned psychic Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) to hold a gathering to communicate with the dearly departed.
Knowing Poirot will think all this is hooey, Ariadne convinces him to come along and debunk the “Unholy” Mrs. Reynolds as a charlatan. But a long and twisty night kicks off in murderous fashion: One of the guests winds up dead, a nasty storm traps the survivors, and Poirot gets back to what he does best, though our hero is thrown off his game when he starts to see and hear strange things.
An intriguing lot rounds out the suspect list, including “Belfast” co-stars Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill as a doctor suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and his clever son, Kyle Allen (“West Side Story”) as Alicia’s ex-fiancé and Camille Cottin (“Stillwater”) as Rowena’s loyal housekeeper.
Fey’s Ariadne is the only supporting character who really stands out, caricaturing detective Poirot. The detective himself gets a boost from what Christie puts on the page and makes his volumes more well-known, thanks to Michael Green’s script that adds more depth to his better-known books like The Orient Express and The Nile.
Equipment Like Branagh’s previous underrated films, “Venice” is a joy to watch, with its classical score by Academy Award-winning “Joker” composer Hildur Gudnatier and its masked Italian gondoliers and co-dressed children creating entertainment.
Aside from Young’s behavior and some strange moments in the mirror, the situation isn’t as scary as it could be; The family favorite, “A Haunting in Venice,” is more honest and depressing in its description.
Poirot finally explained everything. The main problem with the retro conversions at Christie’s is that, while they are stylish and functional enough, they lack the charm and punch of the Knives Out movies. Or even more relevant to classic literature, like the “Sherlock” TV series.
Many bodies lie dead, and Poirot’s beard is still intact, but being “haunted” is not enough to dispel the ghosts of the past and make the horror worse.
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