A
Haunting in Venice
Came
out; 2023
Time;
1 hr 43 min
Watched:
Hulu
Rated:
PG-13 for some strong violence, disturbing images and thematic images
IMDB
Rating; 6.6/10
Caution;
Spoiler Alert
Staring.
Kenneth
Branagh as Hercule Poirot
Jamie
Dornan as Dr. Leslie-Ferrier
Dylan
Corbette-Bader as Baker
Riccardo
Scamarcio as Vitale Portfoglio
Michelle
Yeoh as Joyce Reynolds
Tina
Fey as Ariadne Oliver
Kelly
Reilly as Rowena Drake
Jude
Hill as Leopold Ferrier
Story Line.
In
post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own
exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is
murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.
Thoughts:
This
movie was visually stunning! It was beautiful and gothic. I loved
everything about this. If you've followed these, Murder on the Orient
Express and a Death on the Nile you know these are very well put
together.
By
the end you semi figure out the who done it. Still when everything
comes together you get the full picture!
CAUTION;
Major Spoiler Alert
In
1947, Hercule
Poirot lives in retirement in Venice,
employing ex–police officer Vitale Portfoglio to act as a
bodyguard. On Halloween, mystery writer Ariadne
Oliver convinces Poirot to attend a Halloween party
and séance at
the palazzo of
famed opera singer Rowena Drake and to expose Joyce Reynolds, a World
War I army nurse turned medium,
as a fraud. The palazzo itself is claimed to be haunted by the
spirits of children who, when the palazzo was an orphanage, were
locked up and left to die when a plague swept through the city, with
rumors that the spirits torment any nurses and doctors who dare to
enter.
Rowena
has hired Joyce to help her commune with her daughter Alicia, who
reportedly died by suicide after her fiancé, chef Maxime Gerard,
broke off their engagement. Among the guests in attendance are
Maxime, Rowena's housekeeper Olga Seminoff, Drake family doctor
Leslie Ferrier and his son Leopold, and Joyce's Romani assistant
Desdemona Holland.
During
the séance, Poirot deduces that Joyce has two assistants, revealing
Desdemona's half-brother Nicholas hiding in the chimney. Joyce
suddenly speaks in Alicia's voice and reveals she was murdered by one
of the guests. Poirot attempts to confront Joyce, who tells him to
lighten up and gives him her mask and robe. Seconds after an unknown
assailant nearly drowns Poirot when he is apple
bobbing,
Joyce is found impaled on a statue in the courtyard.
With a
storm cutting off the palazzo, Poirot interviews the guests, during
which he witnesses manifestations of Alicia's ghost and hears a young
girl humming a tune. The investigation yields perplexing results:
Leslie,
severely traumatized by his experiences at the liberation of
the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp,
is in love with Rowena.
Maxime,
who was not initially invited, broke off his engagement because
Rowena did not approve of him, and Alicia was obsessed with keeping
her mother happy.
Nicholas
and Desdemona have been stealing from Joyce and intend to use the
money to travel to St. Louis, Missouri, which they fell in love with
after seeing half of Meet
Me in St. Louis at
a displaced
persons camp.
Leopold
claims to hear voices from the spirits of children which are the
same voices Poirot has been hearing ever since he was nearly
drowned.
When
the guests come across an underground chamber containing the skeletal
remains of the dead children, Leslie suffers a panic attack and
nearly kills Maxime. He is locked inside the music room to recover,
Rowena giving
Poirot the only key.
After examining Maxime's invitation, Poirot deduces Ariadne sent it
and is conspiring with Vitale. Vitale, who investigated Alicia's
death and resigned from the police as a result of the case, gave
Joyce private details, while Ariadne had hoped to use Poirot's
incapability of explaining the supernatural as a plot for her next
book. Leslie is then found stabbed to death.
Gathering
the remaining guests together, Poirot reveals Rowena is the murderer.
Obsessed with keeping Alicia for herself, she cut her off from
contact with Maxime after learning they planned to reconcile, and
then used small amounts of poisonous, hallucinogenic honey
extracted from rhododendrons to weaken
and then care for Alicia;
the same honey was seemingly the cause of Poirot's visions. One
night, Olga unknowingly gave Alicia tea containing a fatal dose.
Rowena, fearful of exposure, staged Alicia's suicide.
When
she began receiving blackmail threats, Rowena suspected either Joyce
or Leslie. She attempted to drown Poirot, realized that she'd
mistaken him for Joyce, and then pushed Joyce to her death. Later,
over the palazzo's internal phone line, she forced Leslie to stab
himself by threatening to kill Leopold. She hoped to pass off both
deaths as part of the children's curse. When Poirot confronts Rowena
on the roof, Alicia's ghost seems to appear to them both, pulling
Rowena down off the building and into the canal where she drowns.
As
dawn breaks, Poirot parts ways with Ariadne, elects not to fire
Vitale or unmask his involvement in the séance, and privately
exposes Leopold as the blackmailer. Leopold explains he understood
the poisoning signs his father missed, making the connection after
realizing Rowena's first starring role was in an
opera whose lead
character is
the "king of poisons". Poirot suggests Leopold and Olga
clear their consciences by using the money to help the Hollands start
a new life in the United States. After noting the possibility of an
afterlife, he returns home to accept new cases.
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