A Haunting In Venice (2023)

Another Poirot film starring, and directed by, Kenneth Branagh, this one based on a novel actually named "Hallowe'en Party", A Haunting In Venice feels a bit different from the previous two instalments in this particular continuity for the detective. It's a moody and atmospheric piece. It also feels disappointingly light on actual Poirot moments though, our hero generally feeling sidelined in favour of the camerawork and building spookiness.

Despite trying to enjoy his retirement, Hercule Poirot has his peace interrupted by a mystery writer friend, Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who hopes he can expose a medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), as a fraud. She will be putting on a performance at the home of Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), a retured opera singer grieving the loss of her daughter, Alicia. Others who will be in attendance are Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and Maxime Gérard (Kyle Allen), the former fiancé of Alicia.

On the one hand, it's commendable to have a Poirot film that feels a step removed from the other recent Poirot films. Branagh, working once again with writer Michael Green, seems intent on showing us that every Poirot tale can both follow a formula and also provide some nice variety, but he seems to struggle with the commitment required for the many scenes that don't focus on the main character.

It should also be said that the cast feels disappointingly lacking in comparison to the previous two features. Fey is a delight, as is Yeoh (the latter sorely underused), but Reilly isn't able to have any fun in her role, Allen is similarly stuck in a solemn mood for the duration, and Dornan is about as bland as he usually is (sorry, he may be a lovely guy, but he rarely works for me onscreen). Riccardo Scamarcio is an enjoyable presence playing Poirot's bodyguard, but you don't get much from the likes of Ali Khan, Emma Laird, Camille Cottin, and the young Jude Hill (playing the son of Dornan's character).

Everything feels as lush and gorgeous, albeit in a very different way, but there's certainly no doubt that the budget is lower than it was for the previous Poirot feature. We don't get to stray too far from the one main location, the cast is undeniably lacking some major star power (aside from the luminous Fey and Yeoh), and it just can't stop feeling, superficially, like an inferior adventure. The spooky fun helps a lot though, and allowed me to put this on a par with its predecessors, despite the shortcomings elsewhere.

Other plus points are the fact that it clocks in at 103 minutes, although it feels a bit longer than that, and a wonderful score from Hildur Guðnadóttir that I recommend, even if you ultimately choose not to watch the film.

Nothing great, nor truly memorable, but enjoyable enough while it's on, which can be said of every one of the Branagh Poirot movies to date. At least the man is consistent when it comes to his attempts to serve up tales of the famous Belgian detective. 

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: Mandrake (2022)

It's weird that Mandrake, a blend of folk horror and rumination on rehabilitation, regret, and resentment, feels like the first film for everyone involved, because it isn't. It's the first feature from director Lynne Davison, but writer Matt Harvey has already written a few other movies, and the cast is made up of people with a wealth of experience between them. It's all put together well enough, I guess, but it also feels incomplete. Someone had one or two interesting ideas, but they didn't realise that they didn't have enough to fill out an actual feature-film runtime.

Deirdre Mullins plays Cathy Madden, a woman who works for the parole board in Northern Ireland. She ends up taking on the case of Mary Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty), a woman with a notorious reputation in her local area, and given the nickname of "Bloody Mary" after the murder of her husband years before. Mary doesn't seem too intent on showing contrition for her past. She may actually believe that her past actions were right, and she can do something to improve Cathy's lot in life.

I could say a lot more about Mandrake without worrying about spoilers, because there's plenty given away by the title, the poster, and any other marketing of the movie, but I'll stop there. And the paragraph above basically summarises the best of the movie, all of which happens in the opening third. What could have been an interesting character piece, full of tension and creepiness, perhaps making use of an air of ambiguity to keep viewers thinking twice about everything they are watching. Sadly, that's all pushed aside, with everything becoming a lot less interesting as soon as it is all overtly shown onscreen.

Mullins and Crotty are both very good in their roles, and their scenes together are easy highlights as they do their best to work with a script that seemingly tries hard to undermine their performances. What the two women can say without speaking is often then also accompanied by dialogue underlining what the movie wants viewers to pay attention to. The rest of the cast also do good work, but there’s a strange lack of naturalism throughout other parts of the film, making every interaction that isn’t between Mullins and Crotty feel forced and slightly irritating.

Davison directs well enough, and there are a couple of nice visuals here and there, but I think she need a much better script. Although Harvey knows where he is going with the main narrative strand, there’s a lack of confidence throughout, either in his own abilities or the intelligence of potential viewers. I am not exaggerating when I say that this started so strong that I thought it was going to be a new firm favourite, a horror gem to recommend to other genre fans. Watching it all start to unravel was quite the depressing experience, especially as tension ebbed away when it should have been building up towards an impactful third act.

This is probably a classic case of “would have worked much better as a short”, and I look forward to whatever the people involved do next, especially if a few lessons have been learned from making this. There’s not enough in Mandrake to make it anything more than a huge missed opportunity, but I am sure that at least one or two other people will enjoy it much more than I did. If you do, feel free to point out anything you think I have not given due credit.

4/10

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