Thoughts on A Haunting in Venice (2023) · 7:21pm Sep 20th, 2023

Not bad by any means, but I'd have to say that "Death on the Nile" is still my top pick for the best of Branagh's adaptations of Hercule Poirot.

Now, off the bat, I am not an expert on Agatha Christie or on Hercule Poirot. I'm also not a horror fan by and large; most of the time such movies (particularly ghost stories or ones to do with mediums) just put me off. But while I'd prefer Branagh's previous movie to this one, there are still some good things to recommend about "Venice".

One, the direction for this is quite slick. There's effective stylistic flourishes at work throughout much of the movie and the mood of the scenes is conveyed most wonderfully. By day at the start of the film, Venice is beautiful... and yet, even in the opening moments, there is still an undercurrent of death, or deadliness, beneath it all.

(I didn't quite appreciate at first the opening sequence of small birds gathering to feed outside of a cathedral, before one of them is suddenly killed by a much larger seagull, but in hindsight it does set the tone rather nicely.)

From the Halloween party that Hercule Poirot (Branagh himself) reluctantly attends, with its magic lantern show spelling out the grisly backstory of the palazzo and the legend of the "Children's Vendetta" in morbidly cheerful detail; to the later tense, uncomfortable mood that hangs over so much of the movie following the murder that occurs during a séance; Branagh deftly sets a good tone that is eerie without being oppressively so. Watching Poirot trying to make sense of what has happened, and what really happened to Alicia Drake, had me braced for a scare but never in total dread of what may happen next. There is one pretty grim scare in the movie involving a basement, but fortunately not as horrific as it could have been. (A lesser director would have gone all-in on the discovery there. Branagh is more retrained and the unnerving effect is all the better for it.)

I did cotton to an important item for solving the mystery, but I didn't figure out *everything* related to it, so the ultimate twist of what happened and who was behind the murders still came as a surprise. (A pleasant surprise to be sure, just to make it clear. I didn't call bullshit on it.)

One thing that was interesting about this one, in view of the entire series as a whole, is the constant theme about how alone Poirot is. He is celebrated constantly as a genius detective, and yet in each movie that genius is exploited by some other party, or winds up hurting him: in "Murder on the Orient Express" he has to live with the lie about the murder committed there; and in "Death on the Nile" his investigation of a separate matter ends in tragedy. In this movie the trend continues, as Poirot's hiring also leads him to uncover a sour truth behind *why* he was hired. However, this movie ends on a more uplifting note for Poirot, as despite everything, he elects to return to his work as detective. Whether the reason for that is if Branagh just wanted to leave the door open for another movie, or if this is the character of Poirot embracing life again after having exorcised some personal demons in solving this particular case, I leave up to you.

The case for this movie may not be as rich as the previous two movies, but I still enjoyed myself fairly well. Branagh is in good form as the master detective, struggling with himself on the eeriest night of the year. Tina Fey is a surprise in a more serious role compared to her normal output, as mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver. While she is only onscreen for a short while, Michelle Yeoh does command attention as medium Joyce Reynolds. I also rather liked Jude Hill as the mature-for-his-age Leopold Ferrier, the doctor's son who loves Poe and cares for his PTSD-afflicted father. (Jamie Ferrier as the doctor is a very sad character and his monologue recounting the horrors of the war that "broke" him is quite sad.)

All in all, glad to have seen this. Even if I am not a Christie buff, and often a huge wimp when it comes to horror, Kenneth Branagh still told an interesting story regarding the master detective, and one that nicely worked in the time of All Hallow's Eve for it as well.

As said before, I will still much prefer "Death on the Nile" for its own style and thematic content, but this was a worthy enough follow-up. If there is a fourth film to come out of Branagh's rendition of Hercule Poirot, I'd be willing to give that one a watch and see what he has to offer there.