A Haunting in Venice
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M, 103 minutes
3 stars
Kenneth Branagh's delightfully particular detective Hercule Poirot is back for the actor/director's third outing inhabiting the world of Agatha Christie mysteries.
Following on from the star-studded Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, A Haunting In Venice draws from Christie's The Hallowe'en Party, and once again gathers a litany of actors to arouse our suspicions.
We catch up with Poirot living an isolated life in Venice, avoiding the many locals who seek to have their cases solved. He deals only with his personal bodyguard/egg procurer and is determined to avoid all manner of investigation.
However, this quiet life is disturbed when old acquaintance Ariadne Oliver (a compelling Tina Fey) stops by with a tempting mystery. She speaks of a medium who converses with the dead so convincingly that she - a sceptical writer herself - has been unable to divine the source of her fraudulence, if it is fraudulence at all. She encourages Poirot to join her at a party that night where the medium, Miss Reynolds (newly-minted Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, commanding as ever), will be conducting a seance.
The party and seance are at the large residence of the once-wealthy performer Rowena Drake (Yellowstone's Beth Dutton herself, Kelly Reilly), who has become a shell of herself since the death of her daughter.
We're told the house, which has stood for hundreds of years, is cursed. Many children died after being mistreated by medical staff, and, as such, legend has it that their spirits will kill or harm any doctors and nurses who dare spend time there.
Poirot, of course, is far too rational for any such talk and is determined to believe nothing will come from the night's seance - other than the unmasking of a fake.
But during the seance, Miss Reynolds declares the late Miss Drake to have been murdered, and the killer to be among them.
Now all present are suspects for Poirot to rule out - and it's a good thing a brewing storm has them all locked in for the night, as one among their party is also killed.
Also at the house are Rowena's housekeeper, Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin, Killing Eve), the family doctor Leslie Ferrier (a pained Jamie Dornan) and his preternaturally intelligent son Leopold (Jude Hill, who worked with Branagh and Dornan in Belfast), the bodyguard (a former cop), Miss Reynolds' assistants, and the dead girl's former fiance Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen, West Side Story).
As with the previous instalments, everyone seems to have a least one partial motive to want one of the party dead, and whether you pick the killer/s or not, it's marvellous fun to go along for the ride.
A Haunting in Venice is being promoted as something of a fright fest, and it is certainly a dark film with ghosty themes, but barring the occasional loud and jarring sound and unexpected appearance, there's not too much in the way of scares.
Like the previous two instalments in the series, the film is luxuriously costumed and meticulously designed. The home itself is reminiscent of the underappreciated Crimson Peak, with its weather-worn feel and dark hallways, hiding secrets and housing ghosts (real or not).
There isn't a weak link among the cast, even if some characters could use a little more fleshing out (perhaps they are victims of the cutting room floor, rather than a murderer).
Though the parlor room mystery nature of the story necessitates that it take place in just one location, it is a shame that we don't get to explore more of Venice.
We get but a taste of the historic Italian city's canals and piazzas at the start and end of the film - enough to charm, but not satiate, us.
Where Murder and Death relied heavily on the use of CGI to build out the period settings, Venice is not much changed since the 1940s, and as a result appears more authentic on camera in Haunting - a positive this film can laud over the others.
If Branagh can continue attracting exciting ensemble casts, there is a wealth of Christie content to pull from that could see this franchise continue for years.