Branagh course-corrects with solid ‘Haunting in Venice’

With fewer celebrities on the call sheet, Kenneth Branagh allows his eccentric take on detective Hercule Poirot to be the main attraction of “A Haunting in Venice,” his third adaptation of an Agatha Christie mystery novel.

A creepy palazzo, a few jump scares, and hints of the supernatural add a jolt of tension to “A Haunting in Venice,” directed by Branagh and written by Michael Green, loosely based on the Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party” novel. Its focus remains squarely on Poirot, with Branagh twirling his giant mustache with gusto, even as his character enters the story wanting nothing more to do with the cruel mysteries of humanity.

Enter Tina Fey as Ariadne, an old friend of Poirot and a crime novelist who is researching Joyce Reynolds, a famed psychic medium (played by recent Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh). Joyce has been beckoned to perform a séance for opera star Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly of “Yellowstone” fame), who reports strange occurrences around her creaky palazzo after the apparent suicide of her daughter, Alicia. Ariadne convinces Poirot to attend the séance (on Halloween night no less) hoping that the world’s-greatest-detective-not-named-Batman can expose the psychic’s fraudulent ways.

Poirot smells something fishy about the séance, of course, but the supernatural forces on display seem, well, unexplainable. Then, as one might expect, a murder occurs, giving Poirot even greater incentive to expose the mystery.

Among the suspects not already named: A skittish doctor (Jamie Dornan) and his clever young son (Jude Hill, breakout of Branagh’s Oscar-winning directorial effort “Belfast”), the dead daughter’s ex-fiancé (Kyle Allen), and the palazzo’s housekeeper (Camille Cottin).

Many familiar faces, sure, but it’s step-or-two away from 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” which featured the likes of Judi Dench, Michelle Pfeiffer, Penelope Cruz and Willem Dafoe in fairly small-ish roles. The follow-up, “Death on the Nile,” filmed in 2019 but not released until 2022, included Gal Gadot, Annette Bening and, unfortunately, Armie Hammer in a major role. Actually, fingers-crossed for Branagh, but “A Haunting in Venice” is the first in the series not to include a famous actor with a major public relations issue at the time of release.

“A Haunting in Venice,” thankfully, goes back to basics in its production design. After a scenic jaunt through the streets and waterways of Venice in its opening minutes, the bulk of the film takes place inside the dank, shadowy walls of the potentially haunted palazzo. Compared to the bright, ugly, green-screen backdrops of “Death on the Nile,” this movie at least creates the proper vibe for a murder-mystery.

The supporting performances here work well enough, with Yeoh making a splashy entrance and Dornan continuing his steady body of reclamation work following his “50 Shades” run. Fey gets the most screentime (besides Branagh), but the character mostly serves as a sounding board to Poirot’s investigation.

Poirot, however, is not at his sharpest, having been attacked himself just before the main murder. He also keeps hearing children’s voices in the walls, and, well, old houses on a dark and stormy night can make anyone go a little crazy.

The draw of this series remains Branagh as Poirot, and with tighter quarters and a smaller ensemble of stars, Poirot makes for a compelling investigator. He may not be as flashy as, say, Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, but Branagh’s Poirot has a way of penetrating souls with his engrossing wordplay.

As for the mystery itself? Given the limited number of suspects, it’s definitely solvable for attentive audiences, though the journey to the conclusion adds enough curveballs without cheating the film’s internal logic.

Branagh, at this point, doesn’t need to worry about populating his next Christie adaptation with too many big stars. His Poirot is so entertaining that the suspects don’t really matter in the end. Branagh should keep making them, even on smaller budgets given the challenge of luring older audiences to the box office these days. Just so long as he doesn’t use any green screens.

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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.