‘A Haunting in Venice’ Review: A Whodunit With a Splash of Horror

What style does “A Haunting in Venice” belong to?

Twirl a mustache and be a part of me on the case. Our first clue is that Kenneth Branagh is taking part in Hercule Poirot in his third adaptation of an Agatha Christie story. So, this could look like an open-and-shut case. Add a homicide in a spooky home peopled by suspects, and you’ve got all of the hallmarks of a traditional locked-room thriller. But Christie followers will rapidly deduce that the screenwriter Michael Green has departed significantly from “Hallowe’en Party,” the unique supply materials from 1969, one in every of her later, lesser books, including components that transfer into the realm of supernatural horror. Be on guard for misdirection.

A glum Poirot, retired from fixing circumstances, has been invited to attend a séance the place a well-known opera singer, Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), desires to contact her lifeless daughter. The medium (or fraud?) is performed with brio by Michelle Yeoh, and her psychic powers current a problem to the stony rationality of the growing older detective. Unlike his comparatively trustworthy, innocuously entertaining variations of “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile,” Branagh is pushing into ghostly new territory, leaning on scary-movie tropes reminiscent of scurrying rats, soar scares and that outdated standby, a face popping up within the mirror.

It’s a bit gloomy as a thriller, however perfunctory as horror. Too talky, for one factor. Branagh, who dabbled in gothic terror early in his profession when he made “Frankenstein,” has extra of a really feel for actorly grand guignol than the tempo of cinematic-scare sequences. Just when you find yourself about to return to the whodunit, there’s an invigorating twist, spurred largely by the presence of Tina Fey, who, between this film and her wryly satirical thrives as an opportunistic podcaster within the collection “Only Murders in the Building,” is getting awfully expert at taking part in a possible killer. Fey right here embodies the sharp-tongued Ariadne Oliver, a thriller creator with a screwball cadence, sensitive about her important reception.

Fey introduces a comedic vitality into the film, speaking out of the aspect of her mouth whereas accompanying Poirot. She provides some much-needed fizzy carbonation to the stiff drink of thriller fixing. Branagh desires to inform a narrative of a shaken, brooding Poirot combating decline, however fortunately, camp humor intrudes. When he goals his preposterous French accent on the French actress Camille Cotton, who performs a housekeeper, it makes you assume a superb time was had on set.

In straddling genres, “Haunting” can get caught within the center. But there’s enjoyable available there. What’s constant is the elegant visuals — hanging cinematography by Haris Zambarloukos — which mark this film’s actual style as lavish old style Hollywood leisure. Canted views of peculiar corners of the home alternate with postcard-stunning photographs of wet Venetian nights. But the dominant pictures are close-ups of film stars, together with lengthy, lingering glances at Branagh, whose whispery gravitas supplies good, if melancholy, firm and occasional wit.

In the unique guide, Poirot ponders the topic of magnificence. He sounds skeptical and a bit insecure. “There was only one thing about his own appearance which really pleased Hercule Poirot,” Christie writes, “and that was the profusion of his mustache.”

Branagh remained fully trustworthy on this trait. But he couldn’t assist however add a soul patch.

A Haunting in Venice
Rated PG-13 for harmful apple-bobbing and demise by impalement. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters.