A Haunting in Venice

Synopsis:  Detective Hercule Poirot investigates a death in Venice. Seances, storms and spookiness ensue.

With A Haunting in Venice, Kenneth Branagh has finally hit his stride as Hercule Poirot. While he and his mustache were fine in Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022), the films were a little drab. The third film in the series is more lively; partly due to the presence of Tina Fey. She adds verve to the Poirot world as piquant mystery writer Ariadne Oliver.

The source material for A Haunting in Venice is Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party (the old-timey spelling looks excitingly pagan!). I was surprised to learn that the book was published in 1969. Ye gad, wasn’t the writer about a hundred by then? She set the story in 1947, wrapping in post-WWII elements. I wish she had gotten with the times and written a mystery based at an ashram where the Beatles were meditating. Something like Who Killed the Sitar Player?

A Haunting in Venice takes liberties with its inspiration–switching the setting away from England and revamping the story. Just as well, because the author does away with a child! Someone drowns the poor kid when she is bobbing for apples. Sounds like a Hallowe’en party that the guests won’t be forgetting. Wisely, Sir Ken doesn’t kill off any juveniles. He does, however, keep the book’s characters’ names — can’t dispense with cool names like Rowena and Leopold.

Here we land in a considerably less crowded Venice, in 1947. Poirot has retired, but desperate would-be clients camp outside the famous detective’s door. He’s hired a bodyguard, Vitale (Riccardo Scamarcio) to keep them at arm’s length. Poirot has an appointment to keep. He strides purposefully to an outdoor cafe to meet with mystery writer, Ariadne whom he’s known for years. She cajoles him to attend a Halloween Party at a palazzo, insisting that a legitimate medium will be there. After the children depart, there will be a seance. Spooky…

The hostess is opera singer Rowena (Kelly Reilly), whose daughter died by suicide not so long ago. She died at the palazzo, which is haunted by the ghosts of children who died during a plague. They were shut up in a basement (sounds undoable in a water-logged city) and deserted. No matter how nice the view, Rowena really needs to leave this place.

Ah, who’s this? Michelle Yeoh! She’s Joyce, a medium. The glamorous woman exudes a quiet confidence in the face of Poirot’s skepticism. Rowena nervously hopes to make contact with her daughter, Alicia during the seance. Also attending is Maxime (Kyle Allen), Alicia’s ex-fiancé. Maxime is a blustery American who is supposed to be a chef. He looks more like a trust fund baby who would be too busy yachting to be bothered fricasseeing and julienning in the kitchen. Rowena doesn’t like him because he broke off his engagement to her daughter, which plunged her into a depression. We see flashbacks of the gamine Alicia lying sadly in bed.

The Halloween party is full of children gamboling around playing games and eating sweets. I wondered if the ghost children liked the revelry or felt jealous. Poirot wandered about looking for objects that a medium might be able to rig and whispering aphorisms about trickery. Poirot looked like he was getting into the costume spirit with his three-tiered walrus mustache. I half-expected him to peel off the yak and human hair curiosity and announce that it was a haunted relic that could grant malevolent wishes.

Once the Halloween party ends and the guests are ushered out, the cast of characters come together in a room readied for the seance. Besides Joyce the medium, Rowena, the ex-fiance, Poirot and Ariadne are joined by two twenty-somethings who are supposed to be siblings. They look nothing alike. The woman, Desdemona (Emma Laird) looks to hail from Scottish ancestors what with her anemia-pale skin, while her brother Nicolas (Ali Khan) appears to be Egyptian. Their goal is to get to America (understandable in the aftermath of WWII) and move to St. Louis (not understandable). Their wish traces back to watching the film Meet Me in St Louis at a displacement camp. I should think they would’ve been offput by Judy Garland belting out the inane Trolley Song Clang, clang, clang, went the trolley, ding, ding, ding, went the bell…buzz, buzz, buzz, went the buzzer. You get the idea. Refugee shock is the only thing that explains their plan to go there. Don’t they know St. Louis’ motto? Not now, not ever.  Anyway…

Other seancers include the housekeeper, Olga (played by Frenchwoman extraordinaire, Camille Cottin) and Dr. Leslie Ferrier and his young son Leopold. For some reason, the PTSD-stricken physician lives at the palazzo. I couldn’t place the adult actor at first… a deflated Henry Cavill? Nope– tis Jamie Dornan, a star of Branagh’s Belfast. (He probably recalled his misbegotten decision to sign on to the 50 Shades of Grey movies to look so petrified in his scenes.) Also from Belfast, is Jude Hill, once again playing son to Jamie Dornan’s character.

We can tell that little Leopold is smart because he wears glasses, as though all his reading has made his eyes tired. Because Dr. Ferrier had a breakdown after being at the liberation of a concentration camp, Leopold looks after his dad. I thought all this pressure might have driven the boy ’round the bend too when he announced to Poirot that he speaks with the child ghosts at the palazzo.

The seance begins and things go from spooky to terrifying. Someone winds up dead. Poirot commands that no one leave the palazzo. No one can leave anyway because a storm has riled up Venice’s waters, docking the city’s watercraft.  I had a hard time buying that; I mean how big can the waves in a lagoon get?

Poirot immediately takes charge and begins to investigate. This involves strolling around the great house in a robe and mask. Good visuals, but it makes no sense.( Just the sort of thing I like.) Poirot walks around a now-deserted party room. For some reason, he decides to bob for apples. Take care your mustache does not become waterlogged and pull you under, Hercule!  

Naturally, everyone is freaking out about who is the murderer and fearing for their lives. Dr. Ferrier starts raving and confronts Poirot: You think I’m crazy, don’t you?! Then, in a wildly counter-productive decision, the good doctor starts smashing furniture.

As the night wears on, Poirot observes and thinks, divining secrets and finding clues. Not everyone is who they say they are. And what really happened on the night Alicia died?

Count on giggling children’s shadows slipping around corners, walks through a dying rooftop garden and a flying bird appearing out of nowhere to jangle everyone’s nerves. Except for, maybe, Tina Fey’s mystery writer. After all, if she survived years on SNL, she can handle this. Count on her to be cool as a cucumber when Poirot gathers everyone together who survived the night, to walk us through the crimes and call out the killer.

I’m hoping the next outing takes on Poirot’s 1920 debut in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In this version, the English country manor is swapped out for a Hollywood Hills estate. Naturally, Harry Styles will be his client, named Hastings, just like in the book.  Elon Musk will play both the victim and the murderer. And it takes place in the present day, so Hercule is about a hundred and seventy years old. But his mustache still looks formidable.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:   B

Cut to the Chase:   Spooky and sure-footed. But too fusty for Gen Z’ers.

Humor Highlight:  Poirot bobbing for apples.