Kenneth Branagh brings back Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot back to the big screen for the third time with A Haunting In Venice. He takes on the lead and serves as director for this script written by Michael Green. It is loosely based on the novel by Agatha Christie entitled Hallowe’en Party, and they really mean loosely this time. Joining Branagh is a cast that includes Tina Fey, Kyle Allen, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Yeoh, and Jamie Dornan. Anyway, this might as well be considered an entirely original story featuring Poirot, which is fine with me.
Hercule Poirot has retired to Venice and has obtained the services of a bodyguard to help make sure he is not roped into any new cases. That seems to work fine until an old friend, Ariadne Oliver, shows up to invite him to a seance. A wealthy, grieving mother has hired a mysterious medium to reach out to her dead daughter, who had apparently committed suicide. Poirot arrives as a Halloween party is winding down, and the medium, played by Michelle Yeoh, turns up to get the supernatural ball rolling. Of course, Poirot exposes the hoax but ends up staying for the murder he has to solve. He locks everyone in the house as a storm rages through the night and begins his investigation, however he is having his own visions and is not sure how much he can trust his own sense of reality.
First of all, the film editing can use some reconsideration because the quick cutaways and close-ups were rather overused. Also, Branagh has chosen to present a more morose and pondering version of Poirot than most of the other portrayals. Poirot wasn’t really like that in the original novels. Branagh does manage to bring out many of Poirot’s more recognizable traits. Poirot is still rather egocentric and fastidious, which was a relief to see. He still enjoys an audience when exposing a killer. Branagh still does a decent job as director and lead, but the movie has quite a few missteps for the most part.
Tina Fey does pretty well as Ariadne Oliver, who is a recurring character in Christie’s works. Ariadne Oliver is a mystery writer who occasionally assisted Poirot in an investigation or two. I thought it was kind of cool that she was included in this latest entry.
The house where this was taking place seemed a little outlandish, but maybe that is how they look in Venice. The first murder itself was a bit weird as well. This movie does require quite a leap to buy into the plot.
There are quite a few lapses in judgment in the making of this film, but all is not lost. Branagh stays pretty faithful to the spirit of Christie’s works. The cast was pretty good, and there are a couple of unnerving moments that causes a bit of a chill.
Branagh may do better just sticking closer to the book if he continues to bring his version of Poirot to the 21st century. It may be that I just don’t have it in me to bash a new Poirot completely, but I still managed to enjoy this one. It is still good enough to provide an entertaining diversion. Branagh has a different interpretation of Poirot that I would prefer sometimes, but he leaves enough for me to hope for another stab at bringing Agatha Christie to this modern audience.
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