A Haunting in Venice

 

Score:  B

Directed by Kenneth Branaugh

Starring Kenneth Branaugh, Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, Kelly Reilly, et. al.

Running time: 103 minutes

Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  A Haunting in Venice, a third adaptation of Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries by director/actor Kenneth Branaugh, is a pleasant early fall entertainment.  While not a great, memorable movie, it's nevertheless rock-solid, a close match in quality to the first Murder on Orient Express.  Poirot continues to be a dependable good guy in this unashamedly traditional franchise.

Hercule Poirot (Branaugh) has decided to leave his famed investigative work behind and hide away in Italy in retirement.  However, one day an old frenemy appears, writer Ariadne Oliver (Fey), who tempts Poirot to join her in attending a seance for a wealthy single woman's dead young daughter.  Poirot is quickly able to discern the medium's (Yeoh) tricks, but soon one of the participants turns up dead.  Trapped in the building that night by a fierce storm, Poirot is determined to get to the bottom of the situation quickly - before anyone else ends up haunting the doomed home.

A Haunting in Venice is a fine, well-made film, providing light fall entertainment that's not super ambitious yet also performs its role as a traditional mystery quite well.  This is Branaugh's third adaptation of Agatha Christie's Poirot stories, and like the others, the plot and characters do have quite a different feel to them compared to contemporary equivalents.  Earnest might not quite be accurate, with all the inevitable twists and relative complexity to the characters and relationships; still, it's a welcome change of tone (IMO) from the cynicism, self-awareness and sheer darkness that many of today's new stories bring.  The atmosphere and various moods are fairly restrained - it's more of a mental exercise than an emotional one.  But there is a light Halloween-y feel to it, with creepy moments but certainly well short of a horror.  There's also some good humor sprinkled in, usually having to do with Poirot's electicisms.  I would say this is about as good as the first Branaugh-Poirot movie (though also nicely distinct from it), thanks in large part to a renewed focus on the lead character.  He's an interesting, and ultimately good, character, fighting for justice by using his wits.  There's precious little moralizing, as there are quite a few shades of gray, but where there is right and wrong, it springs straight from the facts.  I do wish Fey had been given a little more to do, but maybe too little is better than too much in this case.  Ultimately, it's a film that's unlikely to stick with you for a long time but it's also a very pleasant diversion for a wide array of audiences.

***

Although they aren't among the very best films ever, I've enjoyed Branaugh's Poirot mysteries and was glad that another one came out this fall to provide something worth seeing during what's usually a miserable month at the theaters (unless you like horror... yuck!).  I was a bit nervous about this one, though, because the second movie was nowhere near as good as the first.  It strayed from Poirot himself, who was mostly reduced to an observer of a rotten cast of wealthy assholes.  I'd be happy to see a few more of these from Branaugh, provided that they are more like his first and third films.  Now that it's just about October, we should be getting some Oscar contenders as well as blockbuster-level entertainment (can't wait for The Marvels).  Hopefully the next theater trip will be soon - until next time!

* By 20th Century Studios - Disney Media Kits, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73652505