I have to preface this with a reminder that I’ve actually never read any of Agatha Christie’s novels and I know there are over 60 of them.
That being said, I’ve also only seen the films made in the last decade and nothing before that.
On one hand, it’s because I’d rather not have to compare the movies to the books and pick apart every inaccuracy and thus spoil the overall experience.
On the other, the overall quality of shots and effects in modern movies is better than the older ones.
Still, there’s something delightfully echoing gothic horror alongside this murder mystery staple.
Of the latest Christie works put to film this is by far my absolute favorite!
“A Haunting in Venice” is an American murder mystery film produced and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who reprises his role from the previous films, from a screenplay by Michael Green, based on the 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie.
It serves as a sequel to Death on the Nile (2022) and is the third film in which Branagh portrays the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
The rest of the ensemble cast includes Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Kelly Reilly, Riccardo Scamarcio, Rowan Robinson, and Michelle Yeoh.
Clocking in at 103 minutes, the movie is rated PG-13 for some strong violence, disturbing images, and thematic elements.
Having lost his faith in God and humanity, detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) lives in retirement in post-war Venice, employing ex-police officer Vitale Portfoglio (Scamarcio) to act as a bodyguard.
On Halloween, novelist Ariadne Oliver (Fey) convinces Poirot to attend a séance at the palazzo of opera singer Rowena Drake (Reilly) and help unmask medium Joyce Reynolds (Yeoh) as a fraud.
Rowena has hired Reynolds to help her commune with her late daughter Alicia (Robinson).
Alicia committed suicide a year ago after her fiancé, American chef Maxime Gerard (Allen) broke off their engagement.
Among those in attendance are Maxime, Rowena’s housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Cottin), Drake family doctor Leslie Ferrier (Dornan) and his son Leopold (Hill), and Reynolds’ assistant Desdemona Holland (Laird).
During the séance, Poirot deduces that Reynolds has not one assistant but two, revealing Desdemona’s brother Nicholas (Khan) hiding in the chimney.
Suddenly, Reynolds starts speaking in Alicia’s voice and reveals the girl did not commit suicide but was thrown to her death.
Reynolds ends the séance and is later found dead, impaled on a statue in the courtyard.
With a storm cutting off the palazzo, Poirot begins interviewing the guests, during which he hallucinates seeing Alicia’s ghost.
The investigation yields perplexing results: Nicholas and Desdemona are Romani refugees who had been stealing from Reynolds so they could flee to Missouri.
They want to go to Missouri because when they were liberated, the U.S. Army had shown them half of the movie “Meet Me in St. Louis” and just fell in love with the city.
Dr. Ferrier is traumatized from his experiences at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, and Leopold hears voices of children left to die of plague back when the palazzo was an orphanage.
Overall, right up until the end when Poirot reveals who the murdering mastermind is, I’m in love with everything about this film from the music and location to the actors on screen and how eerie everything is but the ending just seems lackluster to me.
