Superintendent Spence brought to Poirot the case solved in Mrs McGinty's Dead and which they discuss in Chapter 5. The case is recollected by Poirot in Chapter 3 when Poirot recalls Mrs. Oliver getting out of a car and "a bag of apples breaking". This is a reference to her second appearance in Mrs McGinty's Dead, Chapter 10. But Christie is (largely) consistent; if you think a murder has to do with madness or magic, you are wrong. Sprites or drooling crazies are not generally killers in Christie. It is usually greed, at the base of things, in some way or the other. You need a reason to kill. Spectacular Venice is featured in the start and conclusion of this film but it's mostly set indoors in a gloomy gothic villa that could have been built on any movie set. John Cooper and B.A. Pyke. Detective Fiction – the collector's guide: Second Edition (pp. 82, 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8 Poirot muses that Rowena likely would have shared a similar fate to Olga, as Garfield's motivation for the murder was his obsession with constructing a second, more perfect garden. Once he had Rowena's money, he would soon have no more need of her, as she had already provided him with a Greek island.

Another fine display, Hercules third cinema case in this line accomplishes the task of thespian work come to life in the classic way.It's good, its complex but simple, its well thought out, it doesn't rush, it doesn't dawdle, Poirot is in virtually the whole novel, and so is Ariadne Oliver. There's some great characters, a brilliant final deduction and its wonderfully believable, but still dash it all it is only 4 stars. The book begins slowly, pouring all sorts of irrelevant details and descriptions over us as if Christie hadn’t yet decided in which direction she was going to take the novel and what information would end up being useful. Even when the murder takes place—the murder of a 13-year-old girl at a Hallowe’en party—there isn’t a lot of drama. Hildur Guønadøttir, the acclaimed composer from Iceland who won an Oscar, Golden Globe® and BAFTA for Joker and an Emmy® and GRAMMY® for Chernobyl, and who most recently scored Tár and Women Talking, composed the score. All that needs to said about the plot line in this whodunnit is that Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot investigates a murder while attending a Halloween seance at a haunted palazzo in Venice, Italy.

A manor that is broken down, but not decrepit is the scene of our mystery, and it works so well to have the elements of horror, but the logic of being a place this happens. Yeoh has one of those moments that made me really focus to not laugh, turning in her chair and making faces that were goofy. Was that the goal? Don't know, but it accomplished it in my book. A Haunting in Venice is the third film in the now Poirot trilogy directed and starring Kenneth Branagh. I'm a very casual Poirot viewer. My only exposure to the character is through these films and the British tv series, which I watched long ago and barely remember. As someone who has never read a Poirot novel, I personally liked the previous two films by Branagh, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. I know many Agatha Christie fans do not, and I can understand why given that these films are not extremely loyal to the source material from what I'm told, especially this film.

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A Haunting in Venice was released in the United States on September 15, 2023, by 20th Century Studios. [13] The film had its red carpet premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square at the West End London on September 11 with none of the cast members in attendance due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. [14] Reception [ edit ] Box office [ edit ] I would say that we are firmly a supernatural thriller, and the normal rules do not apply. So, as magnificent as Venice is, the film and the story itself is not as Gothic as it might appear, but it’s certainly exotic. It’s certainly mysterious, as is Michael’s other work. And in Agatha Christie’s work, you have the chance for a conversation that subverts the genre, so we certainly are happy, as she was and Michael is, to scare people.

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan. The trouble with you is,” said Mrs. Oliver…”the trouble with you is that you insist on being smart. You mind more about your clothes and your moustaches and how you look and what you wear than comfort. Now comfort is really the great thing. Once you’ve passed, say, fifty, comfort is the only thing that matters.” Whereas the last two Branagh Agatha Christie adaptations were movies I sort of liked at first and started to realise were "meh" over time, this latest entry is one that I recognised as mediocre upon first viewing. It's such a great place with shadows, low lighting, elongated halls, and mystery mixed with spooks that are engaging to say the least. And that setting is almost a character as much as the others. The cast is still undeniably star studded but still smaller than the predecessor which means no one goes unnoticed. Highlights include Tina Fey who makes for a great double act with Branagh's Poirot and Michelle Yeoh, given her best role in a Western film in ages (excluding EEAAO of course).A child dies at a Halloween party setting in motion a past hidden crime. At least that is what Ariadne Oliver thinks when she summons Poirot, and Poirot's "little grey cells" are quite in agreement. The local police are skeptical whether the present crime has any connection with a past undetected one, but Poirot, being quite sure, pursues his own investigation in that line. Needn't say that Poirot is absolutely right and for the first time, so is Mrs. Oliver's intuition. After I saw this movie I watched the 2010 television movie Hallowe'en Party starring David Suchet my favourite Hercule Poirot that bares no resemblance to A Haunting in Venice . It's not her greatest story but the television version has humour and lightness as well as suspense and the performances are much more impressive in my opinion.

Agatha Christie writes wonderful mysteries. I encourage anyone to read them. But don’t read this book. Try instead one of these novels:

See also

Yeoh, is great as usual. Her emphasis and incredible manner of speaking as elegant, fun, and so poised still enchanting to this reviewer, but at the same time dives into the extreme bouts of the horror that sort of works at me most times. I've only got handful of Poirot's left to read and thought this would be a perfect choice to enjoy over the Halloween weekend. I'd say this is Brannagh's most accomplished turn as Poirot so far, the toned down moustache has definitely made a difference, he feels more like Poirot. Kenneth Branagh is one of the great filmmakers of our time. And he was meant to play Hercule Poirot. He may be the best to ever do it. And I must thank him. I have taken on reading every Agatha Christie novel that he has adapted for film here in the last few years. The thirty-eighth Poirot novel. and the sixth of seven, in which his partner in the murder investigation is the writer, the author of detectives Ariadne Oliver, a somewhat ironic self-portrait of Agatha Christie. It is this lady who finds herself in the house where the murder took place on the evening when it happened, and it is she who turns to Hercule for help.