A Haunting in Venice
Fear and Loathing in the City of Masks
A Haunting in Venice (2023)
3 / 5
There’s a ton to like about the component pieces of this movie, even if they fit together in a way that might barely miss a lot of people’s taste target. In keeping with the other two entries in the Branagh-Poirot series, it’s visually enthralling. All the costuming and set dressing is immaculate, and the camera work is funhouse beautiful. The actors are all on point: Michelle Yeoh is reliably brilliant, Tina Fey threads her comic gifts through a sassy girl-Friday needle, and Kelly Reilly is utterly magnetic. Jamie Dornan cements his chemistry with Jude Hill (all of 13 years old), who himself demonstrates why he won six awards for playing a fictionalized version of Branagh himself. And Branagh’s Poirot is impeccable; he steps firmly alongside the greats like Suchet and Ustinov with this one. So yeah, the pieces are all great.
Those pieces come together here in an extremely loose adaptation of a rather obscure 1969 Agatha Christie novel. If you’re a Christie purist, Michael Green’s screenplays (he penned both of Branagh’s previous Poirot outings, too) may not work quite the way you would prefer. This one in particular, with its setting change and quasi-supernatural angle, may seem a step too far. Mystery snobs might also call this one tropey or a little slow; between the classic moves of a murder mystery and the meticulous visual style of the piece, it almost feels Shakespearean, arch and stylized.
But it is also delightfully atmospheric, and we have 1947 Venice to thank for that. Venice is a city that feels halfway haunted already, so it doesn’t seem all that unusual that a reclusive opera diva with a tragic past would open her dank and moody old palazzo for a select group of guests to hold a Halloween seance. The ensuing mayhem, including ghostly stuff, fits together admirably. It offers a Poirot story with a sufficiently different vibe that it’s not something you’ve seen before, and it’s proud to be different. A Haunting in Venice is a nifty murder mystery dressed as a spooky seasonal offering for an audience who would like to experience something “eerie” as opposed to gory or unsettling.
3 stars of 5: I liked it, and might watch it again depending on the season and the company.