Famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (played by Sir Kenneth Branagh) is trying to live a quiet, uninterrupted retired life in Venice when he’s pulled into a Halloween party — and seance — by his friend, author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey). The seance is an attempt by medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) to reach the murdered daughter of retired opera star Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) in order to find answers surrounding her alleged suicide. Between an ex-boyfriend (Kyle Allen), a former military doctor, a housekeeper and multiple others, there are plenty of possible murderers (and accomplices) to keep Poirot guessing all while factoring in the haunted house that is the palazzo.
A sequel to Death on the Nile (2022) and Murder On the Orient Express (2017), A Haunting in Venice is a nice addition to the Detective Poirot saga. Branagh plays the lead character with effortless perfection and he’s surrounded by a cast of all-stars. Yeoh is great, Fey surprises, Allen is ferocious and Jude Hill (the doctor’s son, Leopold) makes you wish he was on screen more.
This is very much a stereotype whodunit though and that’s the problem. Everything about the story and pacing feels like we’ve seen it elsewhere many times over. That’s because we have. A lot of the film looks like it was shot with a GoPro, perhaps to force a feel of newness and uniqueness inside the obvious formula of the genre. If the fish-eye view was to suggest a hallucinogenic effect on the character, it didn’t work.
If you like the whodunit genre, A Haunting in Venice is right up your alley. It’s also nothing you haven’t seen before. So don’t come in thinking you’re going to be blown away by new and interesting elements like you would with Knives Out series. But that also doesn’t mean it’s not good fun. I’ll gladly see whatever the fourth installment is.
JKG SCORE: 6.5
Untitled Film Project 