Movie Review: A Haunting in Venice (2023)

A Haunting in Venice (2023) directed by Kenneth Branagh

Based on the Agatha Christie novel Hallowe'en Party, this mystery has a retired Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) living in Venice, Italy. He is visited by an old friend, the mystery author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who wants him to go to a special Halloween party where a seance will be held. The palazzo is said to be haunted by orphan children who died there; the most recent death was the daughter of opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). Drake wants to reconnect with her daughter and has accepted the intrusion of psychic Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh). Oliver wants to debunk the seance and needs Poirot's help. He reluctantly agrees. He successfully debunks the seance but then a murder happens. The situation is intriguing enough to pull him out of retirement, though is he really starting to hear and see the ghosts of the house?

The movie has an odd and not quite compelling premise--Poirot has given up investigations and is content to eat pastries on his rooftop patio. He's drawn in by an old friend but the movie seems more like a horror flick than a murder mystery for the first twenty minutes or so. Branagh as director goes for a lot of stylish angles and jump scares to amp up the horror but the production is never really strong enough to be a convincing horror. The disjointed tone does not help the story, making the fantastic twists appear more unbelievable than they should be. The actors do a good job though no one is outstanding and the large cast is more there to provide lots of suspects rather than lots of star-power or glamor. The ultimate resolution is less satisfying than it should be. This film was a ho-hum outing for Branagh's Poirot.

The plot is very far from the original novel, with a lot of the same character names but almost no one has the same personality. I don't mind doing something different for a movie version of a book (sometimes such changes are required to make a good movie out of a good book) but there aren't any real improvements here.

Not quite recommended.

Movie Review: Death on the Nile (2022)

Death on the Nile (2022) directed by Kenneth Branagh based on the novel by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is vacationing in Egypt when he's drawn into a couple's (Armie Hammer's Simon Doyle and Gal Gadot's Linnet Ridgeway) honeymoon. They've brought a bunch of friends along to celebrate because she's fabulously rich and can afford it; the only problem is Simon dumped Jacqueline (Emma Mackey) six weeks ago when he met Linnet. Jacqueline is following them around, making things awkward for the newlyweds. Linnet asks Poirot to help them though he demurs when it is clear that Jacqueline has done nothing illegal...yet. Poirot joins the destination honeymoon group and quickly discovers that a lot of other people also don't like Linnet (who does seem fairly nice) for various reasons. The couple rents a boat to try and avoid the ex but she shows up anyway. One evening when Linnet goes to bed early, Jacqueline winds up shooting Simon in the leg, causing chaos. The next morning, Linnet is discovered dead. Poirot is on the case now.

While the novel is a labyrinthine murder mystery, this movie can't quite decide between that and being an examination of how tragic and difficult love is. The movie starts with a black and white scene of young Poirot on the World War I battlefield where he is horribly injured. His nurse/girlfriend recommends he grow a mustache to hide his scars. The various suspects in the honeymoon party (why a destination honeymoon?) have a variety of relationships with each other that are slowly revealed throughout the movie. Poirot turns out to be as much a relationship therapist as a private detective; he's also infatuated with one of the suspects. After the mystery is solved, there's a good ten minutes of resolving various romantic relationships, which I would have been happy to skip. I can see what they were going for but I did not want to go there.

The cinematography is interesting with some nice, sweeping shots. Egypt looks great for the most part though some scenes look like CGI, especially on the deck of the boat. So the visuals were a mixed bag too. A couple of the characters are jazz musicians, so the movie has a lot of nice blues and jazz songs from the 1930s (or at least in the 1930s style).

Not recommended--the Peter Ustinov version is better, though the book is (naturally) best. 

TV Review: Shackleton by Charles Sturridge

Shackleton written and directed by Charles Sturridge

A review inspired by real historical events!*

Sir Earnest Shackleton was a British Antarctic explorer who mounted an expedition to cross the frozen continent. Someone had already made it to the South Pole so he had to do something different, something more. He gets a crew and ship going just as World War I is breaking out. They sail south and make it into the Weddell Sea where their boat, The Endurance, becomes trapped in the ice. Over time it becomes apparent that they won't be able to cross the continent and have to get to safety. Their boat sinks in the ice so they take their supplies on dog sleds and begin the seemingly impossible journey home.

This telling of the story has Kenneth Branagh as Shackleton. He gives a fine performance as the hard yet optimistic British gentleman explorer. The story starts with him giving lectures about the Antarctic and going through all the preparations to make his new voyage. This part was interesting but not as compelling as the sea voyages, especially when they hit the cold waters of the South Pole. When his mission changes, he shows the resilience needed to bring everybody back, even those who are caving in to despair. The story is intercut with bits of his wife and his mistress back home dealing with the war and his absence, including an effort to mount a rescue voyage. Again, these parts are interesting but not compelling like the arctic survival story.

The show is a two-part miniseries, with each part about 100 minutes long. If I had final cut on the show, I'd probably drop the "back home" scenes so viewers can share in the crew's anxiety over what's happening back home. The story doesn't need any extra drama, the survival story is dramatic enough.

*Okay, the real, historical event that inspired me to watch this was A Good Story is Hard to Find's discussion of a book version of Shackleton's adventure called Endurance. I'm a bit behind!