Happy Halloween with Hercule Poirot
Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 4:00PM 
I don't know about you, but after the double whammy of Belfast and Death on the Nile, I was ready to give up on Kenneth Branagh as a director. Yet, like Michael Corleone famously said: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"
Turns out that what Branagh and, more specifically, his Agatha Christie adaptations needed was a healthy shot of nonsense plus the spooky seasonings of horror. A Haunting in Venice, now streaming on Hulu, succeeds by untethering itself from literary fidelity, twisting Christie's Hallowe'en Party out of shape in pursuit of maximum entertainment. Though a sense of melancholy pervades, self-serious prestige is abandoned, or mayhap sacrificed at a witches' altar. And from its deadened carcass, Hercule Poirot emerges as the center of a ghostly storm, the skeptic anchor keeping this Hammer Horror resurgence from floating away on the Lido tide…
In an old Venetian palace, a congregation of unusual suspects come together for a séance presided over by the mysterious Joyce Reynolds. She's a silver-haired Michelle Yeoh, coming off her Oscar afterglow with a fun supporting turn, all self-curated enigma and sublimated calculation. Her possession circus is a tremendous highlight, but a last conversation with the Belgian detective is even more fascinating. The Best Actress champion is the MVP in a cast of actors who, to put it bluntly, understood the assignment. Branagh's Poirot has never been more palatable than in this post-war gloom, Tina Fey indulges in retro delivery galore, Kelly Reilly is a shattered diva, and even young Jude Hill acquits himself nicely.
Still, none of those flesh and blood figures stand a chance against the formalistic hauntings at hand. Given the privilege to shoot in actual sets rather than green screen nothingness, Haris Zambarloukos gets drunk on the possibilities of derelict architecture, shadow play, and ghostly apparitions. Musically, Hildur Guðnadóttir delivers a beautiful lament while the sound design amps up the shocking shlock to great effect. Sammy Sheldon relishes the chance to imagine Poirot out of the pre-war fashions he usually decks, and John Paul Kelly goes berserk on the set design, fresco-ing palimpsests of paint and mildew to bring a fairytale forest inside. It's so much and so much fun, surprisingly artful, and occasionally canny, like when it posits Ariadne Oliver as a collision of authorial intents - Christie and Branagh and their public.
I'll never stop begrudging Branagh's Original Screenplay win, but if that's what it took for him to stop chasing gold, get free and properly inspired, then at least some good came out of it. What about you, dear reader, are you into this horror-tinged Poirot? Did A Haunting in Venice besot or annoy you?
Reader Comments (7)
Well, it's sort of a relative thing, right? I went with my mother to see Orient Express at a theater, and I don't plan to watch a single minute of that again in my life. I suppose Death on the Nile is by some measures even worse, but it's so weird that I'll watch bits of it on cable on occasion (plus I find Tom Bateman very charismatic and tons of fun to watch - why I also watch parts of Cold Pursuit when it's on). Is Venice better than those two? Sure. But the mystery is kind of obvious once it gets going, and I think Tina Fey is terribly miscast. I like Yeoh a lot of course, and you're right to compliment Jude Hill who does a great job, and having been a Riccardo Scamarcio fan before (an excellent villain in John Wick 2) it's nice to see him again, but once you've seen this film you've seen it. It's the best of these, but none are all that good.
Here's hoping Christie's great stories are freed from Branagh's meh direction sooner rather than later.
I hate that Yellowstone was coded (and coded itself, to be fair) as a "red state show" because Kelly Reilly spent years doing the most delicious TV acting anywhere, with zero recognition. I mean, ZERO. Say what you want about the show, its politics, Taylor Sheridan, etc. but you cannot touch the line readings or complete embodiment of that character. It's messy soapy trash TV but her performance in it is just undeniable. And not only that but her work was outrageously *popular*, a total blind spot on Hollywood's part not to celebrate it. I guess the industry prefers barely watched darlings from the dregs of Hulu and Netflix to a tremendous actress doing revelatory work on the country's biggest show.
She's a force of nature, I hope directors took note and have great stuff lined up for her to do.
I’m fine with Kenneth Branagh wanting to play a swashbuckling detective with a tortured romantic past, who suffers from existential angst.
Go ahead! But write a new character so you can do whatever you want with it, leaping from the tops of train cars, living in despair in romantic palazzos, trying vainly to right the wrongs of the world.
But don’t attach it to the name of Hercule Poirot.
I assume they did this because:
1) Box office for name recognition for Hercule Poirot/ Agatha Christie.
2) They didn’t think they could actually write a good plot themselves.
And with this 3rd outing, it’s true: they couldn’t write a good plot themselves. The Christie novel “Hallowe’en Party” is very much an English village mystery (and not one of her best). We knew Christie was a master of plotting, we’re now also realizing her skills of economy and pace.
It would be nice if this series could lose the Christie attachment and set itself free. Perhaps an opening dream where a moustache-less Branagh detective realizes he has been dreaming he is Hercule Poirot? Or a side step into another multiverse? Or an angry detective threatening to sue a Christie imitator for putting him in their plagiarized books?
A Haunting in Venice put me to sleep in the theatre. Literally! And when I was awake I was aghast at how bad the camerawork was. Terrible angles, looked dreadful. I’ve seen all 3 of Branagh’s Poirot films and think they are all about 2/5 stars at best.
I still remain devoted to Sidney Lumet’s 70’s Murder on the Orient Express. What a delightful film that I could watch once a week and never get bored.
DK- Yellowstone got a SAG ensemble nomination last year. SAG makes some unexpected noms a lot but sometimes they are deserved. Maybe she gets into supporting actress this year.
McGill--cosign every word. As a Christie devotee, I am allergic to these movies that Branagh has unleashed on the public. They are not true to the spirit of the author or Poirot. He wants to have the commerical cachet of Christie without any due respect to her works or her philosophy.
charlea--The Lumet version of MOTOE is one of my favorite films. My family often watches it at Christmas. Just a complete and utter enchantment. Sigh.
What a fun read! It's brilliant how you combine the spookiness of Halloween with the mystery of Hercule Poirot. A "whodunit" Halloween event is an original and entertaining idea. I'm feeling motivated to throw a Poirot-themed party for Halloween. furniture online I appreciate the original and enjoyable idea, and I look forward to more themed parties on your blog!