Movie Review: A Haunting in Venice provides a real magic trick
Moving Pictures By Mo Burford
A Haunting in Venice Review
Dear Readers: It has, in the parlance of our times, been a minute. But after a bumpy summer, fall has gratefully begun its descent, and I am once again ushered back into the arms of the theater, and thus to writing movie reviews. And as someone who watches many movies and who writes reviews about some of them, I often wonder to myself about the machinery, the nuts and bolts of movie making that produces the magic trick—that we care about these made-up characters and made-up events, that we laugh and cry along with them, or that we revel in violence and mayhem we could never for a moment stomach in our own lives. For me, it is always first and foremost magic, a real and abiding magic. But the question of those mechanical bits is never far from my mind—and, whether you are conscious of it or not, it is not far from yours either. For it is these individual pieces of the form and their confluence into a whole that produces the magic trick before our very eyes and in our very hearts.
I say all this as a prelude to this review because it is foremost in my mind after watching A Haunting in Venice—the latest in a series of movies reimagining the classic mystery novels of Agatha Christie directed by Kenneth Branagh—wherein I was constantly astounded by the great work of its individual pieces to produce a movie both highly entertaining and genuinely suspenseful and mysterious.
In A Haunting in Venice, we find a now retired Hercule Poirot (Branagh), eating chocolates and living in Venice (not too shabby!). He is lured out of retirement by an old friend and esteemed mystery writer, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), in order to debunk a medium (Michelle Yeoh) who is giving a seance on all hallow’s eve at the home of an opera singer whose daughter has recently passed. What follows are all the twists and turns a reader of Christie is used to, performed by a large ensemble cast and deftly directed by Branagh.
One explanation for my fascination with this film’s individual components is that they are not all in harmony. In particular, some of the performances are a little out of sync with the film, most notably Tina Fey’s—an actor and comedian whose work I’ve always adored, but in this case, she was sadly miscast, and for quite a large role. It by no means spoils the film, but it does throw its individual components into relief. In contrast, though, I thought Branagh’s performance as Poirot was actually far better than it even needed to be, bringing great pathos to what can often be a rather silly character.
But there is so much to love in a movie like this: The sets were impeccably dressed, the score was superb, and the cinematography was lively. The camera placement from scene to scene was so dynamic, I was often tickled to see what new vantage we would be watching the mystery unfold from next. And I love a mystery on film! The structure alone is so immensely satisfying. To go from complete stupefaction to satisfied knowing all in the span of two hours is a great gift, and I’m always happy to gobble them up—whether it is a dark and gritty post-modern detective story like Seven, or one that dives into the mind of a serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs, or more of a comedy like Knives Out or Glass Onion. I love the turning of the pieces, or as Benoit Blanc describes it in the aforementioned Knives Out, to watch “the arc's path, stroll leisurely to its terminus and the truth falls at my feet.”
Regardless of the film’s minor flaws and incongruity, it was a marvel to behold and a joyous way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.
A Haunting in Venice (2023)
★★★★
(four stars)
A Haunting in Venice is now playing at Columbia Cinema and Skylight Theater.
Questions, comments, movie suggestions? Email Mo at movingpicturesccc@gmail.com
For more reviews and to see his up-to-date movie log, follow Mo at Letterboxd
