Describe This Movie In One Simpsons Quote:
BART: And the question mark leaves the door open for a sequel.Brief Plot Synopsis: Former Flemish flatfoot faces fearsome (fraudulent?) phantoms.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 2.5 serial killer dwarves out of 5.
Tagline: "Death is just the beginning."
Better Tagline: "That's pretty much what The Mummy said."
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: The year is 1947, and renowned detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is retired and living in self-imposed exile in Venice, Italy. He spends his days gardening and letting his bodyguard Vitale (Riccardo Scamarcio) dump would-be clients into the canals. All that changes when his mystery novelist friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) arrives with a proposition: help her debunk a spiritual medium (Michelle Yeoh) summoned to communicate with the dead daughter of famed opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). But what if — and hear me out — said medium is on to something?
"Critical" Analysis: A Haunting in Venice is Branagh's third dive into directing himself playing Agatha Christie's legendary Belgian detective (the movie is based on her previously unadapted Hallowe'en Party). Branagh's take on Poirot has rankled some Christie devotees, but to its credit, Haunting has a number of eerie moments — augmented RFTED favorite Hildur Gudnadóttir's sinister score — but otherwise doesn't do a lot to distinguish itself from its predecessors.
It's perfectly adequate, in other words. You've got Yeoh continuing her post-Everything Everywhere All At Once victory lap, Fey playing a spiffy dame with sass for days, and Belfast's Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill reuniting as father and son. The formula is well-worn, right down to Poirot's predictable reluctance to do the one thing he's good at.
Not that hearing "Hercule Poirot is on the case" instills a lot of confidence in the enterprise.
One thing Haunting has over Branagh's previous adaptations is greater reliance on location (moved from patrician southwest England to ominous Venice) and atmosphere. There are some legit scares, and some not so much (looking at you, multiple cockatiel freakouts). The rationale behind Poirot's apparent encounters with the supernatural makes as much sense as you'd expect, considering Michael Green's script is barely recognizable as an adaptation of Christie's work.
It's just as well Branagh changed the title, because — location switch aside — there's almost nothing here that recalls the original story aside from Poirot, some of the other characters' names, and the presence of an apple bobbing tub. In that sense, it's about as faithful an Agatha Christie adaptation as It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
And all of this ignores the one immutable cinematic constant that Branagh can't escape: he'll never make another truly excellent movie because he cheated on Emma Thompson.
Skeptical? Prior to their split in 1995, Branagh could count the likes of Henry V, Peter's Friends, and Much Ado About Nothing among his directorial successes. And since then? What, Thor? Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit? Cinderella? Sure, Hamlet and Belfast got lots of Oscar noms (the latter winning for Best Screenplay), but that sort of thing happens when you cast Ciaran Hinds and Dame Judi Dench to voice your tear-jerker script.
A Haunting in Venice finds Kenneth Branagh attempting to break the mold of his previous Poirot efforts by injecting some supernatural speculation and attempting a handful of jump scares. But none of that forgives wasting Michelle Yeoh, defanging Tina Fey, and butchering Christie's source material. And sadly, none of it is going to prevent Branagh from making more of these.
A Hauting in Venice is in theaters today.
