A Haunting in Venice Review!

The latest Hercule Poirot mystery takes the famous detective into a supernatural darkness! A Haunting in Venice is based on Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party (1969). It is the third film by director and star, Kenneth Branagh, preceded by Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022). The screenplay is by Michael Green who also scripted the previous movies. Green wrote in his foreword to the movie tie-in novel about what was adapted, “Situation, setting, and characters taken and honoured in secondary use.” The Branagh adaptations have developed the character and the tone of the mysteries. The film begins at a piazza filled with pigeons when there is a sudden attack! This startles awake Hercule Poirot (Branagh). He has the long, bushy moustache and calm, keen mind. Branagh also starred as Niels Bohr in Oppenheimer.  

It is Venice, Italy, 1947. The setting has moved from the town of Woodleigh Common. Gondolas pass by. Poirot has on cloth shoe covering as he uses a magnifiying glass while examing his garden. He walks out of his house and a crowd that was outside his door follows him. His bodyguard, Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio), keeps them from getting too close. Scamarcio played Santino D’Antonio in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017). Poirot measures two eggs for his breakfast. His precision and sense of order is a distinct feature of Poirot. Portfoglio announces a lady visitor and presents him with an apple. Poirot realizes that this is the preference of an old friend, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey). Cindy Canning in Only Murders in the Building is played by Fey. Christie introduced Oliver in “The Case of the Discontented Soldier”, a short story in Parker Pyne Investigates (1934). There is cleverness as Fey is an observer of Poirot as a subject for her fiction. 

 

They have a rooftop meeting and Oliver calls herself the “world’s #1 mystery writer” so we instantly get that this is Christie’s fictional counterpart. Poirot is retired and has been refusing cases, but Oliver convinces him to attend a séance for a former opera singer, Rowena Drake. The streets of Venice are filled with people dressed for Halloween. Oliver shows Poirot a newspaper showing Mrs. Reynolds, a medium holding the séance. He can expose her as a scam. They reach the palazzo of Rowena Drake at night on a gondola. Portfoglio says, “In Venice, we say every house is haunted or cursed.” The orphan children are attending the party with the séance to be held later. They watch a shadow play with puppets renacting the Black Plague. During the plague, children are locked away and their deaths has the children’s vendetta! 

Poirot sees the boy, Leopold Ferrier (Jude Hill), reading Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1850) published after his death. Hill was brilliant as Buddy in Branagh’s bio drama, Belfast (2021). Leopold appears to sense the spirits in the palazzo. Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) is the owner of the palazzo. Reilly plays Beth Dutton in the Western drama, Yellowstone. Her housekeeper is Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin). This year’s historical drama, Golda, also starred Cottin. They find by himself, Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), Leopold’s father, who sits next to a fireplace disturbed. Dornan also played the father of Hill’s character in Belfast. It is nice to see Branagh act alongside the stars of his personal film though I did not recognize them at the time! A mysterious, white-masked person is taken on a gondola to the palazzo. 

Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) is the owner of the palazzo. Reilly plays Beth Dutton in the Western drama, Yellowstone. Her housekeeper is Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin). This year’s historical drama, Golda, also starred Cottin. They find by himself, Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), Leopold’s father, who sits next to a fireplace disturbed. Dornan also played the father of Hill’s character in Belfast. It is nice to see Branagh act alongside the stars of his personal film though I did not recognize them at the time! Rowena takes Poirot to her daughter’s room on the third floor. In black and white flashback, Rowen’s daughter, Alicia (Rowan Robinson), falls lifeless into the canal! A mysterious, white-masked person is taken on a gondola to the palazzo. Rowena tells Poirot that her daughter drownd. He asks if she believes in mediums. Rowena replies, “This house made me believe.” The new guest removes her white mask, it is Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), who has streaks of white in her dark hair. Yeoh was of course Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). 

Her assistant is Desdemona Holland (Emma Laird). The actress plays Iris in the dramatic series, Mayor of Kingstown. Oliver is a rival to Mrs. Reynolds. Poirot states that after all he has seen, he hoped for a higher power that would make everything have order, but then states that there are no ghosts! The chandelier in the next room crashes! Poirot’s skepticism is tested as well as his faith. This ends the party for the orphan children. Mrs. Reynolds says that someone pushed Alicia over the balcony. On the roof is a garden, once loved by Alicia, and now the flowers are withered. Rowena explains that against her wishes, her daughter fell for a chef, Maxime Gerard. We see four claw marks, the mark of the children’s vendetta. Mrs. Reynolds holds up a toy rabbit and says its name, “Baba” which is what Alicia called it according to Rowena. Then, we have the arrival of Gerard (Kyle Allen), Alicia’s former fiancé. Allen played Romeo in the romantic comedy, Rosaline (2022).

#AHauntingInVenice, #KennethBranagh, #MichaelGreen, #TinaFey, #KellyReilly, #MichelleYeoh, #RiccardoScarmarcio, #JudeHill, #JamieDornan,#KyleAllen, #CamilleCottin, #EmmaLaird, #AliKhan, #RowanRobinson