'A Haunting in Venice' review: Agatha Christie mystery is ghostly bore – USA TODAY
‘A Haunting in Venice’: Kenneth Branagh again on the case in thriller
Kenneth Branagh directs and reprises his position as Agatha Christie’s famed detective Hercule Poirot within the new homicide thriller “A Haunting in Venice.”
USA TODAY
One other Agatha Christie film, one other old-school whodunit that doesn’t measure as much as Kenneth Branagh’s wonderful mustache.
“A Haunting in Venice” (★★½ out of 4; rated PG-13; in theaters Friday), Branagh’s third go-round as ace Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (and third time manning the director’s chair), is just marginally higher than the earlier two stale outings, 2017’s “Homicide on the Orient Specific” and final 12 months’s “Dying on the Nile.” For his latest starry homicide thriller, based mostly on Christie’s “Hallowe’en Occasion,” Branagh challenges Poirot’s deductive thoughts and supernatural perception system and surrounds him with spookiness that may solely spiff up a creaky plot and skinny characters a lot.
Set in 1947 – 10 years after “Nile” if anybody’s counting – this story finds Poirot retired and dwelling in Venice, Italy. After a profession of seeing the worst of humanity whereas fixing murders and witnessing the horrors of battle, the ex-detective is content material gardening, hiding from potential shoppers and ready for his pastry supply (like a post-war Postmates).
“Truffles for circumstances,” Poirot’s good friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) teases him when she comes to go to. The world’s high thriller author is in Venice to attend a Halloween seance held at a supposedly haunted palazzo, which was as soon as an orphanage however is now mentioned to deal with the spirits of tortured youngsters.
The palazzo’s proprietor is opera star Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), a soprano who hasn’t sung a observe since her unwell daughter Alicia suffered a damaged engagement and bizarrely took a header into a close-by canal, and he or she’s employed famend psychic Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) to carry a gathering to speak with the dearly departed.
Figuring out Poirot will assume all that is hooey, Ariadne convinces him to return alongside and debunk the “Unholy” Mrs. Reynolds as a charlatan. However an extended and twisty evening kicks off in murderous style: One of many friends winds up useless, the survivors are trapped by a nasty storm, and Poirot will get again to what he does greatest, although our hero is thrown off his sport when he begins to see and listen to unusual issues.
An intriguing lot rounds out the suspect record, together with “Belfast” co-stars Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill as a health care provider affected by post-traumatic stress dysfunction and his intelligent son, Kyle Allen (“West Aspect Story”) as Alicia’s ex-fiancé and Camille Cottin (“Stillwater”) as Rowena’s loyal housekeeper. Fey’s Ariadne is the one supporting participant that actually pops, as a wry foil to the reserved Poirot. The detective himself will get one other first rate fleshing-out from what Christie had on the web page courtesy of Michael Inexperienced’s screenplay, which takes extra freedom with the supply materials than “Orient Specific” and “Nile” did with their better-known tomes.
Like Branagh’s earlier mysteries, “Venice” is very good to have a look at and Oscar-winning “Joker” composer Hildur Gudnadøttir’s darkly classical rating units a pleasingly creepy vibe alongside masked Italian gondoliers and costumed children. But except for Yeoh’s character and the occasional odd determine in a mirror, it’s not practically as scary because it ought to or might be – the family-friendly “Haunted Mansion” is extra unsettling, truthfully – and the narrative is a grind to get by means of earlier than Poirot lastly reveals all.
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The primary downside with these throwback Christie diversifications is that, whereas sufficiently trendy and serviceable, they only don’t have the infectious, go-for-broke power of a “Knives Out” film or perhaps a extra relatable model of a basic literary sleuthing sort just like the “Sherlock” TV collection. A number of our bodies drop useless, Poirot’s facial hair continues to be on level, however “Haunting” can’t exorcise ghosts of the previous sufficient for an exhilarating case.
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