Branagh's third outing as Hercule Poirot shifts Agatha Christie's lesser-known source novel Hallowe'en Party to the telegenic setting of Venice, as the jetsetters' other popular choices of the Orient Express and Nile have already been used, and sees the detective coaxed out of self-imposed retirement by a crime novelist acquaintance to investigate a local 'unsolvable' mystery. This involves the past death of the daughter of a former opera singer at her huge palazzo, a seance there on Halloween and the usual array of guests with chequered backstories to suspect once murders inevitably start occurring. Nothing new so far then, but playing with the eerie possibility that the house is actually haunted, and the fresh challenge presented by that to Poirot's analytical mind, does add a nice twist.
Diverting, but Branagh really should start considering handing the directorial reins to someone else. The pacing is uneven and the logic of the plot has more cracks in it than the walls of the palazzo.
6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment