Hang on the vestiges of summer all you want, but the reality is that fall is nearly here and with it all the spooky thrills of the season including A Haunting in Venice, a cozy and creepy whodunit hitting theaters this weekend.
Director and star Kenneth Branagh returns as Hercule Poirot, the world-renowned private investigator (with a mustache that is the envy of the entirety of the Pacific Northwest), in this latest Agatha Christie adaptation.
Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
When we catch up with the illustrious crime solver, it is 1947 and he has retreated to a life of solitude and retirement in post-World War II Venice. But inevitably his time away from death and detecting proves short-lived when American novelist Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) arrives on his doorstep with a proposition, that he accompany her to an All Hallows Eve séance being held at the supposedly haunted palazzo of opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). After the holiday festivities, the group will be joined by medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) who was the last of the women to be jailed for witchcraft in the city and who promises to make contact beyond the veil with Rowena’s recently deceased daughter. Also in attendance are a bevy of soon-to-be suspects and red herrings, of course. The reason Ariadne is dragging the Poirot along? To prove once and for all if there truly is anything beyond death. It's only a matter of time until both that question and Poirot's skills are put to the test.
Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
What follows is both a charming and intermittently melancholy whodunit which is as much about ghosts as it is the ghosts of our past. Be it familial trauma, wartime trauma, or the restless spirits of medieval orphans cruelly left behind to expire by their caretakers. It's a tale perfectly suited to the film's gothic and baroque atmosphere, locale, and aesthetic. Masked gondoliers paddle by, a terrifying puppet show thrills, and shadows dance in all the dark, cob-webbed filled corners of a once grand home
Branaugh reprises his dual roles in front of the camera and behind, and adds to the sense of creeping dread with the visual flair of his camera work. His employment of body-mounted cameras adds a sense of spiraling sanity and his liberal use of Dutch angles enhances the feelings of the uncanny.
Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
While the film’s focus on unpacking a murder mystery is still very much in keeping with the previous two movies in the franchise, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Haunting freshens up the formula with the introduction of the (possibly) supernatural, akin to a gothic ghost story. Appropriately, Edgar Allan Poe gets a mention in the film as it plays like a collaboration between Poe and Christie, blending both her clever plot twists and his eerie melancholia.
Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
As to the performances, Branagh is once again in fine form here as he meticulously investigates in his signature mustache-twirling fashion. The film is further elevated by its ensemble. Reilly offers plenty of pathos as the mourning mother. Jamie Dornan presents an aching portrayal of a man who has seen far too much in battlefront hospitals. But it's Fey’s proto-girl-boss and Yeoh’s theatrical soothsayer who bring the real camp with a pair of game performances, and in doing so snatch the spotlight.
Rob Youngson/20th Century Studios
Altogether, the film succeeds in summoning up creepy delight for audiences at just the right time of year. A Haunting in Venice proves that Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit style never goes, well, out of style.
