Much like quite a sizeable portion of the filmgoing audience, I was also somewhat cynical of the idea of Kenneth Branagh venturing into the world of Agatha Christie a few years ago, since he is not a director who inspires too much confidence based on his tendency to resort to conventions far too regularly, which is certainly not what we want from films based on the timeless works of one of the greatest mystery writers to ever work in the English language. I dismissed his versions of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, since it seemed like nothing could come out of these adaptations that we haven’t seen in the masterful works produced nearly fifty years ago, when directors like Sidney Lumet and John Guillermin were dealing in genuinely brilliant ideas in the process of working closely with the source material. However, I am also someone who will wholeheartedly admit when there is an error in judgment since Branagh’s most recent excursion into the author’s world has proven to not only restore our faith in his endeavours to tackle the intimidating figure of Hercule Poirot but somehow manages to be the best film he has directed since the 1990s, which is quite an achievement, especially for someone who has been working for quite as long as he has, making films across many different genres. A Haunting in Venice is by far the best of these films and is surprisingly quite a tense and invigorating film that proves to be far better than it seemed on the surface and shows that Branagh is genuinely gifted when he is given the right material and puts in the appropriate level of effort to brings these stories to life.

Unsurprisingly, the reason why A Haunting in Venice seems so exceptional is quite simply because Branagh is choosing to go in his direction, rather than simply retelling a story that has been done better in the past. His chosen text is “A Halloween Party”, a short story that Christie wrote – although this is not a direct adaptation, and instead proves to be merely based around some of the ideas embedded in that story, constructing most of its narrative through a more original set of ideas. It is sometimes a perilous endeavour to attempt to mimic the work of as iconic an author as Christie, especially when only loosely adapting one of her works, but it is something that Branagh does remarkably well, choosing the key elements and developing them with incredible consistency and proving that there is a lot more to this film than initially meets the eye. He steps out of his comfort zone and ventures into a few new genres, not only in terms of his directorial skill, but the overall nature of these stories, which are almost always quite dark, but never to the extent that we see in this film, which almost feels like the director is aiming to see just how far he can push a particular idea before it falls apart – and mercifully, it somehow never does, and is instead rendered as a strikingly beautiful gothic mystery film that is as narratively complex as it is visually striking, Branagh asserting quite an impressive sense of style onto a film that could have very easily have fallen apart without his exceptional skills standing steadily at the helm. It is not often that I praise Branagh’s directorial prowess, but it seems entirely justified with A Haunting in Venice, which shows that he is still very much capable of taking a complex set of concepts and executing them with astonishing style.

However, credit must also go to Branagh for refusing to rest on his laurels with this film – his previous two Christie adaptations were solid and received relatively well, but didn’t shatter expectations and exist merely as pleasant murder mysteries that are enjoyable but nothing spectacular. This changes with A Haunting in Venice, which sees the director experimenting with genre much more than he has in his previous encounters with Christie. Her work is often quite unsettling and plays on our inherent fears, but they rarely tend to become horror films outright, which is where this film deviates from expectations. Branagh gleefully plays around with genre in a way that is quite unexpected – we would normally predict that he would be more inclined to make a fully-fledged horror (and even he has spoken about how this was not the intention), but as we have come to learn, the best surprises are those that come out of nowhere, and Branagh secretly revealing himself to be capable of evoking a particularly terrifying atmosphere is about as unexpected as we are ever likely to find, which is perhaps why this film feels so unexpectedly compelling, even at its most straightforward. Arguably, he does owe quite a debt to his regular director of photography Haris Zambarloukos, whose cinematography (along with the impeccable costumes and production design) brings this film to life, capturing every spooky detail brilliantly and creating an unforgettable atmosphere from which Branagh can explore some more abstract ideas – and A Haunting in Venice manages to be legitimately quite scary, which is only a further reason why this is one of the better films that Branagh has directed, purely because he set out with a particular goal in mind, and reaches it with seemingly very little difficulty, and in the process finds new ways to develop on some of these concepts, which prove to be unexpectedly quite intriguing in their way, making this a much more varied film than we initially may have expected.

Christie’s stories are usually synonymous with rich, detailed characters, and are often seen as ensemble pieces that translate to film exceptionally well. One of the more compelling aspects of Branagh’s adaptations is that he does his best to maintain this quality, assembling impressive casts that fit the various roles perfectly. A Haunting in Venice is perhaps the least saturated when it comes to major names, but in keeping the cast quite small (with less than a dozen major characters woven into the story), Branagh can give every one of them a moment on screen. Occupying the central role as Poirot, Branagh turns in one of his better performances overall, moving past the inherent quirkiness of the character and finding the depth, which is not something we often saw with previous versions, as he is usually viewed as a bombastic eccentric. The film also sees the introduction of another Christie mainstay, the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, who is here portrayed by Tina Fey in one of her sporadic efforts to do something more dramatic (although she does veer towards being the film’s comedic relief), and a bevvy of other characters exclusive to this story, such as Joyce Reynolds, the medium who serves to be the central catalyst of the events that take place throughout the film. It is the iconic Michelle Yeoh who takes on the role, and while she may be slightly miscast, considering the character is described as ordinary in every conceivable way (which has never been a term that has been used to describe Yeoh), she manages to still turn out quite a good performance. The rest of the cast is slightly more subdued in terms of what they are given to do, but Kelly Reilly, Camille Cottin and Jamie Dornan all do as well as they can in these roles and manage to put together some genuinely impressive performances that are much more complex in practice than they seemed in theory. It’s a strong cast of characters that are well-constructed by the director and his actors, who do their best to navigate the sometimes challenging territory that exists throughout this film.

Perhaps calling A Haunting in Venice the best of Branagh’s adaptations of Christie’s work is not that bold of a declaration, since the bar was not high to start. However, considering the potential these films tend to have, it was good to finally see a film that lives up to the standards set by the writer, even if it meant only being inspired by her work – in many ways, a loose adaptation was the best way for Branagh to show that he was capable of turning these stories into something meaningful since it doesn’t become a shot-for-shot remake of a better film, or one that adheres too closely to the text that it never manages to find its own identity. There is something very charming about this film, which is counterbalanced by the darker subject matter that gives us a chance to see a different kind of story behind these stories. Unfortunately, I don’t believe anyone will ever view Branagh’s interpretation of Poirot as anything close to definitive – there have been far better versions of this character, and Branagh never quite feels like a natural fit for the role (not in the same way as the likes of David Suchet or Peter Ustinov), and he will certainly not be the last actor to play the role, but there is something oddly delightful about how he approaches the character and everything that he represents that helps make these films at least solidly entertaining. A Haunting in Venice doesn’t always hit the mark perfectly, but it never seems to be all that invested in doing so, instead managing to cobble together a solid cast that is doing genuinely strong work, coming together to create this fascinating combination of horror and murder mystery. It has moments of intentional ambiguity, and the resolution may not be as satisfying as we may perhaps hope, but there is still something so wildly entertaining about this film and its perspective that keeps us engaged and interested and helps elevate the film far beyond our expectations.