Mark Kermode reviews A Haunting in Venice - Kermode and Mayo's Take

new film by Kenneth Branagh which is the third of brander's uh pyros but the first one that isn't a remake because murder on the Orient Express famously there was a film of it in 1970s uh death in the Nile this is based on Agatha Christie's Halloween party do you know Halloween party I don't in fact I walk past the poster on the tube the other day and it was Ken and these fantastic mustache and it looks amazing I don't know this story no well weirdly enough you saw um Belfast I did of course Belfast features in it Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill who are in this film and in that film and I didn't know this I just found this out from researching the trivia Hill's character the young boy opens a Christmas present one of which is a copy of Halloween party wow so there we go he knows what he's doing I didn't know that so Brana back behind the you know I mean I do find that when Brandon said I mean I love watching him do Poirot but it's the twin layered mustache that you're always kind of worried about the mechanics of it I know that there's a whole thing in death and not about how it comes about so anyway it is extraordinary it is absolutely extraordinary so he is now retired from sleuthing in the opening scene and this plays out in Venice in the openings of course it does it's called The Haunting events in the opening scene we see him ignoring the implications of a load of people who want him to solve cases for them there's a kind of humorous scene in which people Rush up to him with legal papers and he has a bodyguard who throws them over Bridges so they don't bother him all he wants to do is just be kept away enjoying his cakes and his chocolates which we know from the previous films he likes very much until he has a visit from Tina Fey's crime writer ariadne Oliver who has other plans for him here's a clip her cure Poirot really has gone silent World himself up into retirement cakes for cases I am much satisfied no this is happiness not satisfaction no right or knows the difference even picked Venice to hide in a gorgeous Relic slowly sinking into the sea just like your mind without a challenge don't underestimate me for a clever tone of phrase I am the world's number one mystery writer or was anyway best sellers 27 of 30 books democritics on the last three called them all small beer olive oil it is good to see you you are coming with me time to put some life back into your life it's a great kind of old-fashioned screwball performance isn't it without you know delivery what a lovely balcony what a terrific view I think I've seen that in a couple of other movies so he's sitting there enjoying his his fondants and his cakes and all that stuff she persuades him to attend a Halloween party Seance at a haunted Palazzo nominally to see a medium who he shall either debunk or who according to Tina Fey's character will be demonstrated to be the real thing which will give her Source material for her for her next novel that Medium is played by Michelle yeoh who recently won an Oscar for everything everywhere all at once the Palazzo belongs to Kelly Riley's Marina Davis whose daughter fell to her death from a high window or did she fall or did she jump or was she pushed the psychic is going to find out by putting them in touch with the daughter also at the Palazzo are Jamie dornan's traumatized uh doctor precocious son Jude Hill Camille Cotton's August seminoff host of other people who when people start dying are all in time-honored fashion uh suspects so the plot is preposterously twisty but that's what we come here for right it's an angry the Christie thing and also these kind of Agatha Christie with an edge of Gothic horror Brana clearly loves playing Poirot I mean you saw just from that scene in which he's having a conversation and eating a cake yeah you can see the Joy on his face he just loves it and he loves doing the accent and he loves the the fussiness and the mannerisms and just the little all the cross on the coffee and everything about it exactly absolutely everything he loves about it he also I think clearly enjoys the opportunity to make films which are on the one hand old-fashioned but on the other hand have the modernity that is now available to them this is shot on digital incidentally so from the opening I mean it opens with this kind of Dutch angle shot of Venice your Dutch angle means everything's on the I've told you that before overnight yes we're always worth well I always thought the joke word dutch angle means that something is on the shonk meaning it's you know the the the the camera is sideways it's a kind of expressionist angle and I always thought it was I was told it's called Dutch angle because in Holland everything's flat so it's a joke if the things on the show it's not actually it's from Deutsche angle it's from German film directors going to America and then bringing German expressionism into Hollywood films so it starts with a very angular shot we remember dead again which was a kind of tribute to those movies and then there are these over-cranked ghostly machinations of the plot again if you know brana's stuff you think Frankenstein he loves all that kind of over ripe overcooked melodram I mean he's you know he is a man who is not afraid of a grand theatrical gesture and also apparently I was reading the background stuff he took a leaf out of freaking's book for Exorcist in that there were things during the Seance sequences in which he didn't tell the actors that you know the lights were suddenly going to go out or you know all these gusts of winds were going to blow across to say because what he wanted to do was to get genuinely alarmed reactions from them you know which has gone a bit of a bit of fun I thought it was very likable yes it's silly yes it's overcooked yes it's it's as ripe as a very very ripe thing excellent it who of course is you know the the great hero of modern film composition uh recently did women talking won the Oscar for Joker so it it is it is a film that delivers exactly what you think it's got it is called a haunting in Venice it is in Venice there is a haunting there is all the you know sort of high campery of this kind of over-cranked Gothic drama and everyone is given 110 but not in a not in a completely scenery chewing fashion in a way that's that mixes old-fashioned and also newfangled I mean it's Preposterous and ridiculous and I smiled all the way through it and at the end does he gather everybody in a room and goes for a while and there's a thing and then I realized there's a brilliant when they when some of the because the exhibition happens it was a thing that happens I told you that child two we took child two to see The Mousetrap and in the Moment In The Mousetrap when it's revealed when the inspector says and I put it to you that it was you and child two who was very young at the time went no well it was excellent I felt the same way about this no so is it is there so when when the thing is revealed well it's it it's not it's not quite as you're saying but it's close enough I think you'll really enjoy it I want to see it now it's nonsense it's an absolute fondant fancy of a film thanks very much for watching this video hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it while you're here check out all the other videos because they're cool too aren't they yeah and if you want to keep up to date with everything kermuda Mayo's take then check out our social channels I mean why wouldn't you I mean I would I have done excellent

Channel: Kermode and Mayo's Take

Views: 131,526

Keywords: Mark Kermode, Simon Mayo, Kermode and Mayo's Take, Film Review, TV Review

Id: EAVo9sMDCAs

Length: 7min 27sec (447 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 14 2023