Right now, no self-respecting London bus can leave the depot without an advert for A Haunting In Venice draped across its flanks.
After a terrible summer, Disney is desperately throwing the marketing budget at the third Branatha Christie movie.
Logic would suggest that it is entirely redundant to employ Kenneth Branagh to direct and star in an Agatha Christie murder mystery, or indeed any whodunnit.
If Branagh is starring and directing it’s always going to be him wot dunnit. It’ll be Colonel Branagh in the conservatory with a Gal Gadot; Reverend Branagh in the library with a Russell Brand; Professor Branagh in the CGI pyramid with the French'n'Saunders.
This third outing is loosely based on the Queen of crime's second-to-last Poirot mystery, Hallowe’en Party, published in the late 60s when her powers were on the wane. Unlike Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, this hasn’t been adapted for the screen before so there’s no comparing it with fondly remembered versions starring Peter Ustinov or David Suchet and also, no great compulsion to be faithful to the original.
So the story is hiked over from an English village in the late 60s to a big dark gothic house in Venice, in 1947 where Poirot arrives to debunk a medium (Yeoh.) Once established in the gothic residence, Branagh opens up with a cacophony of tricks using perception-distorting lenses and shots of characters taken from above looking sharply down or from below looking up.
Branagh's regular cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos ensures that the audience is never unaware of the intense spooky atmosphere of this shadowy residence. Overall the effect is to suggest that there is less to this than meets the eye.
The movie pulls in opposing directions. It is funny and knowing, but persists with trying to explore Poirot’s psyche; the murder mystery is framed as a spiritual challenge to the Belgian detective - can he retain his belief in rationality and logic in the face of events that seem to defy such explanation?
Branagh seems a bit stuck on the big screen as he can't really do small, still roles and he can’t deliver the big, hammy, scene-stealers either. If he wants us to take his Poirot seriously, to invest in the mechanics and angst within this deduction machine, it might be an idea to do the accent properly. Here he's just Inspector Clouseau trying to be Sartre.
A Haunting In Venice. (12A.) Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring Kenneth Branagh, Kelly Reilly, Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Camille Cottin. Running time 143 mins.
See half-man-half-critic.weebly.com for a review of the BFI’s 4K Blu-ray of Gregory’s Girl and Kick It! The Newtown Neurotics Story.
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