First off, if I hadn’t taken my friend, who had already seen The Nun II, with me to the theaters, I am not sure how far we would’ve gotten into watching The Nun II. As soon as he said, “This is the Nun. a ball is going to roll back.’ and then it did. I was outta there faster than… *wait, I can’t say that on the internet.* Irregardless (yes, it’s a word), we got them to play the correct movie in the end.
The better of the three, which isn’t saying much, A Haunting in Venice delivers a visually pleasing “classic” murder mystery. I use “classic” loosely, because I want to be nice. The problem with the Branagh-Poirot films is that they all often feel too safe, because these films are very much nothing we haven’t see before, including A Haunting in Venice. I was disappointed by what we were given, but that’s on me. This is Kenneth Branagh Poirot, they’re almost always disappointing.
Don’t play me, I am not always the greatest with murder mysteries. It usually takes me a bit to figure out who the murderer is, but I typically do before the killer is revealed. The murder hadn’t happened yet, and I had already guessed the murderer and the motives SPOT ON (ask my friend, I took someone for corroboration). Pretty much every twist and every “supernatural” explanation the movie had was obvious to me and I guessed it. My friend on the other hand, couldn’t figure out who it was, so, perhaps, that is a good thing for the general audience.
The problem is we have seen this before. I know, I know, “there’s nothing new under the sun,” but Only Murders in the Building is doing just fine and that’s ALL fresh! A Haunting in Venice’s story seemed small, short, and somewhat obvious. It’s very clever, but the reveals feel forced because of the writing. The script definitely needed a couple once-overs to get right; yet, that’s Branaghh-Poirot for you. And classic Branagh directing, too… the acting NEEDS work and some of these are award winning acting professionals… It’s a little hard to do what Branagh did, honestly, and it’s even harder to stomach sometimes. I wasn’t sure if the real murders were those in Death of the Nile or those who watched it [I went there]. And yes… The mustache is getting tamer and tamer with each movie.
A Haunting in Venice gets a 7.5.