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MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

A Haunting in Venice is a movie with a lot of great ingredients: An Agatha Christie murder mystery (1969’s Hallowe’en Party) featuring the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot; a cast of talented actors; atmospheric location filming in Venice, Italy; and a creepy orchestral score by Hildur Guðnadóttir. It’s also Kenneth Branagh’s third time around as Poirot and he has settled into the role quite well.

So why is this movie such an overcooked and underwhelming dish?

Rather than take place in late 1960’s London, A Haunting in Venice finds Poirot retired in Venice just following the end of the war in Europe. The film makes a big deal about the detective’s retirement (to justify the aging Branagh), but any casual reader of the Agatha Christie mysteries knows that Poirot retired at the age of 30, always coming out of retirement to solve one more case. In this instance, he is invited by mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Fey) to attend a Halloween party that will conclude with a séance. Poirot is there to uncover trickery when the medium (Michelle Yeoh) attempts to communicate with the spirit of the recently murdered daughter of opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly).

The party takes place in a dark and dreary palazzo and it’s not long into the séance before another murder occurs and Poirot has to put his little gray cells to work solving the mystery and revealing the killer.

A Haunting in Venice is aptly titled, since the movie wants to be not only a murder mystery but also a supernatural thriller with a lot on its mind. The postwar setting allows Michael Green’s screenplay to include the plight of war refugees, the existential weariness following a time of conflict, PTSD, and even the questioning of faith.

I’d like to give this movie more credit for its higher aspirations. There are enough moments of clever dialogue, occasional humor, and decent acting in A Haunting in Venice to make for a diverting two hours at the movies.

But there are some real problems. Neither the suspense or the mystery worked for me. Branagh is so busy tilting his camera and using quick edits that not a single one of his jump scares hits the mark. He loads the film with clever references to better movies (including Citizen Kane and Meet Me in St. Louis) that really add little of substance. When Poirot finally solves the mystery, the solution includes information that is not only beyond the viewer’s ability to know but – I would argue – outside of Poirot’s capacity as well.

Let me recommend a better mystery film set in Venice. It’s Nicholas Roeg’s 1973 masterpiece Don’t Look Now starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier. It’s haunting and terrifying.

Halo and Pitchfork Rating:

Three halos: An entertaining time passer, but a muddle of a mystery movie.
Two pitchforks: As much violence as you can get away with in a PG-13 movie; murders; mild swearing.

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