If you're stunned by the whodunit in “Murder at the Orient Express” and swept away by the grandeur and intrigue of “Death on the Nile," get ready for another treat, as Detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh; “Cinderella," "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit," "Thor”) is mired in another murder mystery case.
This time, it may be the most challenging case of all, as the logical and procedural detective is dealing with some things that can't be explained by logic, namely, supernatural suspects. As someone who doesn't believe in God or ghosts, the famed detective may just have met his match.
An old friend, authoress Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who has had a hand in making Hercule the famous Hercule Poirot from her work as a mystery novelist, coaxes the detective from retirement to join her in a séance in a haunted palazzo in Venice.
Ariadne intends to prove that a psychic medium known as Mrs. Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh, “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), invited by an opera star and bereft mother Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) to connect her spiritually with her dead daughter, Alicia (Rowan Robinson), is a fake and defrauding vulnerable victims.
Rowena is hosting a costumed party for children in her palatial estate at Halloween, and after the party, the séance will take place. The cavernous palazzo used to be an orphanage. Doctors and nurses cared for the children, until the plague came, and they abandoned them. They died and remain as tormented spirits, haunting the mansion.
Rowena lost Alicia to suicide, who jumped from the high balcony and drowned in the canal. It's believed, however, that the spirits pushed her. Alicia was previously engaged to a cad, Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), who eventually left her and went for a richer woman. Alicia came back home and went mad; said to be hearing voices, whispers and sobbings of the tortured children.
Present at the séance are Ariadne; Mrs. Reynolds and her two assistants, Desdemona (Emma Laird) and Nicholas Holland (Ali Khan); anxious family doctor Leslie Perrier (Jamie Dornan)and his precocious young son, Leopold (Jude Hill); Rowena's housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cotin); bodyguard Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio). Former fiance Maxime somehow got an invitation and joined in.
Mrs. Reynolds is very convincing in her performance, summoning and talking to the dead. No theatrics could pull the wool over Hercule's eyes, however. That said, even the detective can't explain certain things, who are pretty disoriented at times by the paranormal happenings. Sure enough, where Hercule goes, death follows.
When one of the guests is found impaled, Hercule puts his detective hat back on and goes to work. And the mysterious death doesn't stop there. He interrogates each guest one by one, while keenly observing behaviors and movements, connecting the dots, putting together bits and pieces. The guests are not what they seem to be, as he learned about their past lives.
What's different here though is that he has to take into account there may be abstract elements that go beyond the rational possibilities, which is really unsettling to him. The mid-reveal is unexpected and the final reveal is even more shocking. If suspension of spooky disbelief is needed is that if the killer is truly capable of committing those acts.
The settings are magnetic. Visualize Venice, the city with perpetual canals and gondolas in a dark stormy night, where silvery rain pours from the skies, lightning flashes and thunder strikes, raging waters rattle wood beams, iron gates and towering windows.
Inside the palazzo are darkened fire-lit halls, elegant arches and columns, wooden ceilings and brick walls, crystal chandeliers and lantern lamps, dusty old books, Renaissance era arts and marble statues. Mood lightings, distorted camera angles, jump scare images and sounds, shakings and shadows add to eerie air.
From 'Orient Express' to 'Nile' and 'Venice,' it's three for three. Well-designed crime construct and atmospheric ambiance with a sprinkle of supernatural, “A Haunting in Venice” is a hauntingly captivating and credible murder mystery.
