The mystery genre has had a quiet resurgence since director Kenneth Branagh’s remake of Murder on the Orient Express (2017), the initial entry in his new Hercule Poirot detective saga. After grossing over $352 million on a $55 million budget, the film spawned two sequels: Death on the Nile (2022) and A Haunting in Venice (2023).
In between the two subsequent entries in Branagh’s series, audiences were introduced to an original detective in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out films (2019 and 2022). Johnson’s detective, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is in a way a direct caricature of Hercule Poirot, yet he and the films were both immediately embraced for breathing fresh life into the tired mystery genre.
Hercule Poirot is the creation of author Agatha Christie, who arguably wrote the book on the mystery genre over 60 times. Her legendary novels have already spawned countless film and television adaptations. Branagh’s adaptations have not only swam in well-trodden waters, but they have done so without adding anything of substance to Christie’s stories or to the mystery genre as a whole. His adaptation of A Haunting in Venice looked like it would be a well-needed reinvigoration for the series and mix things up in an interesting way by playing within the horror genre. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end up providing much besides more of the same.
After retiring from detective work, Poirot (Branagh) has taken up residence in Venice, Italy where he serves as a recluse, ignoring the locals’ pleas for his aid in new cases. Once his old friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) shows up on his doorstep with an intriguing opportunity to disprove the abilities of well-known medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), Poirot agrees to accompany her to a palazzo and attend a seance on Halloween night.
Quite possibly the biggest draw of Branagh’s films has been the diverse ensemble casts populated with well-known stars that they have been able to assemble. Key players in this mystery include Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), a grieving mother whose daughter supposedly committed suicide, Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), the Drake family doctor, and several others.
When a murderer interrupts the party’s attempt to contact Rowena’s deceased daughter, the night’s events take a dire turn to prevent others from losing their own lives.
In many ways, A Haunting in Venice shares the same struggles that its predecessors faced. One of the most egregious is how the audience is rarely given a reason to care about any of the characters in the large ensemble other than Poirot himself. Branagh has a clear reverence for this character and continues injecting his performance with charisma and an infectious excitement for sleuthing. The character’s peculiar obsessive quirks and self-confidence add humor when it is needed, yet Branagh’s performance also acts as a constant anchor that drives the plot forward, especially in moments filled with heavy drama.
Nearly every other character leaves much to be desired, as their only real purpose is to arouse viewers’ suspicion. The only interesting relationship that the film explores is that between Leslie and his young son Leopold (Jude Hill). Leslie suffers from trauma that he experienced during his service in World War II. He is a tragic character whose only reason left to live is his son. When he is at his lowest, Leopold steps in to protect him and ensures he knows that he is there to care for him. Their relationship is an endearing role reversal that provides the story with emotional substance.
None of the other characters do anything to engage the viewer. However, what is perhaps most disappointing is how there was clearly potential for them to do so. In the film’s first act, Poirot and Joyce have an interaction in which he informs her of his disapproval and disbelief in her supernatural abilities. He believes that she is a fraud who torments and lies to those who are grief-stricken. She refutes his accusation and compares herself to him by telling him that they both speak for the dead and provide relief to their loved ones. They just have different ways of going about doing so.
The concept that Poirot can have an equal is something that has not yet been seen. It would have been fascinating to see that concept explored through Joyce’s character and to see them race to solve the murder or even work together to solve it using their own methods. This is nowhere near where the film takes their interaction, nor is it how it plays out in Agatha Christie’s novel. Instead, the story’s trajectory is disappointing and completely wastes Joyce as a character, along with Yeoh’s performance.
A Haunting in Venice is often frustrating to watch because it constantly grapples with deciding whether or not it wants to fully commit to telling a supernatural story. Poirot witnesses frighteningly unexplainable things throughout the film that eventually make him question his insanity. The psychological torment he endures is a captivating foil for the detective who is always ten steps ahead of everyone else in the room. The things he sees occasionally put him off balance and give him an added challenge when solving the case.
While many of these things get explained by the time the story reaches its conclusion, something occurs in the climactic confrontation with the killer that is indisputably meant to be viewed as a supernatural event. Although Poirot simply brushes it off, the audience wonders whether what he experienced was real. Based on the rules and explanations that were previously established, it wouldn’t make sense for it to have been real, yet it happened all the same leaving viewers in a confused state.
It doesn’t help that the story follows the tiresome three-act structure that has been commonplace for the most basic mystery stories. In the first act, Poirot and the viewer are introduced to the supporting players and the film’s first murder takes place. The second act sees Poirot investigate the crime and interview each surviving player to try to find possible motives. In the third act, Poirot puts everything together and solves the case, which eagle-eyed viewers would have already solved at least a half hour before the point in the film when he gives his major speech revealing the murderer. Towards the film’s end, everything starts to feel so formulaic and obvious that the minor thrill of solving the mystery gets replaced with weariness.
Similarly to the previous two, an aspect of the film that doesn’t disappoint is the gorgeously lush cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos. Zambarloukos’ work is once again an exceptional standout. He seamlessly transitions from photographing beautiful Egyptian settings dripping with color to the dreary and claustrophobic Italian palazzo where the majority of this film takes place. The tight framing significantly contributes to the sense of unease that Branagh looked to craft for this particular story. A fair dosage of Dutch angles also lends to the film’s eerie identity.
Aside from the cinematography, John Paul Kelly’s exquisite production design makes the palazzo feel like its own character. Every dark corner of the building feels like it’s hiding its own secret. The decrepit setting only becomes more interesting as the film goes on, and more about its construction is revealed.
These two elements should have given Branagh the opportunity to craft plenty of spine-tingling scares. Instead, he mainly resorts exclusively to jump scares cued by loud music that have no payoff past the moment they occur. These forgettably lazy scares sadly characterize the experience of watching A Haunting in Venice as a whole.
Once again, Branagh crafted a film with so much promise but didn’t do anything to imbue it with substance. By honoring classic mystery stories, he delivers films that are all too familiar with what viewers have come to expect from the genre. He can play with the genre all he wants, but until he does something original with these classic stories, there is nothing else within them that can truly surprise. Agatha Christie wrote over 30 stories starring Hercule Poirot. It might be time for Branagh to shave his mustache at three.
Review Courtesy of Evan Miller
Feature Image Credit to 20th Century Studios via The Hollywood Reporter
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