A Haunting in Venice

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
  • edie_22032024 - 29 June 2024
    Untitled
    Out of the three Kenneth Branagh remake of Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot series films, this one is the least watchable. But for the sake of beloved character of Poirot, I still enjoyed watching it twice, once was last year in 2023, when it just came out, and again recently.

    Michelle Yeoh's character Joyce Reynolds is the furthest departure from Agatha's original story. No spoiler alert intended, Yeoh's performance is also abysmal, its just not a discreet decision to cast her in the film, which is a rather swanky production, the scenes of post-World War II Venice appeared absolutely grandiose, sound effect could be more subtle, which, overall is neat.

    Kenneth Branagh's cast for Poirot still is importunate behind his genteel respectability, pleasant to watch, fits in the prodding narrative of Agatha's signature character.

    At some point I wish someday to rewatch a TV series drama that includes an episode of Hallowe'en Party that produced in 2011.
  • hgmicah - 14 May 2024
    Boring and untrue to the characters
    Anyone who has read Agatha Christie would know this is not based on her novels (so whoever tagged it as such should remove that).

    Poirot did attempt to retire once, but it was to a small village in England to grow vegetable marrows. Not to a huge palazzo in Venice. The real Poirot would HATE Venice because it is not the clean straight streets. His OCD would have gone into overdrive. And he never married or fell in love so the whole Katherine thing makes no sense for him, other than the actor wants to make him emotional and depressed. He also wants him to be atheistic for some reason but Poirot was patently Catholic for the last part of his life and would not have abandoned that faith. He would never be so devoid of hope, yet Branagh wants to play him that way and it just comes off as empty. With nothing to him and no point. It doesn't make him more interesting it makes him depressing as a character to watch; he just mopes about.

    Kenneth Branagh is taking the character in a direction that is unenjoyable and boring. He's profiting off the name of Poirot without doing the work of actually BEING the character. It's frustrating for true Christie fans and frankly an insult to her amazing writing. She's not called the Queen of Mystery for nothing. We should honor her writing, not tear it down and shred it up like this.

    Also, Ariadne Oliver is not American. She was British. And she would NEVER have called Poirot "Hercules" because his name is Hercule, WITHOUT the "s" at the end. So why is Tina Fey shouting "Hercules" at him? While it may seem a small detail it is his name. And as his lifelong friend she would know how it is pronounced; that is not a slipup she would make. Whoever wrote this bungled it.

    Frankly I can't stand the Branagh version anymore, and I've seen all three of the films. I refuse to sit through another absolute travesty if he continues to try and destroy one of literature's best characters. He should suck up his ego and move on to something else. Do better, Hollywood.