A Haunting in Venice
Celebrated sleuth Hercule Poirot, now retired and living in self-imposed exile in Venice, reluctantly attends a Halloween séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.
- Released: 2023-09-13
- Runtime: 103 minutes
- Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
- Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Emma Laird, Camille Cottin, Riccardo Scamarcio, Kelly Reilly, Ali Khan, Kyle Allen, Amir El-Masry, Lorenzo Acquaviva, David Menkin, Clara Duczmal, Emilio Villa-Muhammad, Vanessa Ifediora
- Director: Kenneth Branagh
Comments
- classicsoncall - 4 July 2024
"You woke the bear from his sleep. You cannot cry when he tangos."
Kenneth Branagh returns as director and as the famed detective Hercule Poirot in this adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel, "Hallowe'en Party". The story makes use of supernatural and horror elements that turn out to be decidedly man-made, but the backdrop and set design make for a spooky mystery. Perhaps surprising is the cast list, with Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey, and Kelly Reilly performing admirably, with a very able assist by young Jude Hill as the precocious son of a doctor who meets with misfortune in a blackmail scheme gone awry. Virtually none of the characters are what they originally seemed, making the twists in the picture more than satisfying, although the one that revealed Leopold Ferrier's (Hill) role in the outcome was rather troubling to this viewer. Of the three Branagh Poirot's, I found "Murder on the Orient Express" to be the best, followed by "Death on the Nile". Which is not meant to diminish this one, as it keeps the viewer guessing during Poirot's own description of a 'whodonit', in which all the players wind up being a victim in one way or another. - vampirebri - 17 May 2024
I wasn't going to like it, but I really enjoyed it.
I was prepared to not like it, but changed my mind in about 20 minutes. I loved his Hamlet (best version by far). I didn't like Branagh's previous Christie adaptations, and I really wasn't holding much hope for this. The lighting perfectly set the tone with the sets. The cinematography was superb and brings the viewer right into the scene. The actors deftly handled their characters without going overboard. The creepy scenes had just the right amount of creepiness. It would have been too easy to drift into a horror flick and lose the dark mystery of the script. I've been to Venice and this film captured the feeling of an ancient beautiful and haunted city. I forgive him for Death On The Nile, and Murder On The Orient Express!
