A Haunting in Venice (2023)

The Plot of A Haunting in Venice: Hercule Poirot is living in retirement in Venice, and has hired a bodyguard to keep wanabe clients away. However, Ariadne Oliver, a crime writer tempts him into attending a séance in a palazzo owned by a former opera singer. The séance is intended to allow Rowena the opera singer with her daughter who has apparently committed suicide. The house is a former orphanage and it is rumoured to be haunted. The séance is conducted by Mrs Joyce Reynolds and attended by Rowena, her housekeeper Olga, her doctor Leslie and his son Leopold and Maxime, uninvited who was the daughter’s fiancée. In fairly short order Poirot exposes the fraudulent aspects of the séance, but it is not all over, since he is almost drowned by an assailant and Mrs Reynolds is killed. Leslie the doctor is also stabbed, despite being locked into a room with the detective holding the key. Poirot also seems to be seeing ghosts.

Content of A Haunting in Venice:  There is no sex or nudity, but probably some drinking. If I’m honest I didn’t notice. Once we get all the characters into the palazzo and start the séance there are a lot of loud bangs, as in the familiar trope quiet, quiet, quiet, BANG. People float about in gondolas, and once the storm starts everyone is isolated in the palazzo. It is mostly quite dark. Leopold the doctor’s son is irritatingly smart.

A View of A Haunting in Venice: By now I have read the Wikipedia entry and so know a bit more than I did when watching it in the cinema. There is apparently a problem with honey extracted, according to Wikipedia, from  rhododendrons. I don’t think I saw any in the film. But my main problem was the darkness. This might just be me, but I can’t really enjoy films which take place in the dark, or mostly in the dark. I am also motivated to see the TV film to see how they presented the same plot. And while there is a wistful soundtrack, indicating the post war environment, which some people liked, I just wondered why. So I would suggest that you wait for it to be available on TV before watching it.

In Kenneth Branagh’s work I liked Death on the Nile and Belfast better, and as an actor maybe Dunkirk.