Per a Halloween in the name of author’s detective storiestonight on first TV at 9.20pm on Rai 2 goes on air Murder in Venicefilm directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh (for the third time as Hercule Poirot). This time the mystery to be solved takes place in the lagoon city, where the irresistible detective will have to face a mystery full of enigmas and some disturbing “ghostly” presences.
Murder in Venicefilm plot tonight 31 October on Rai 2
In post-war Venice, more precisely in 1947, former famous detective Hercule Poirot (Branagh) lives in self-exile. Withdrew from the investigation, he spends his days in solitudeprotected by his bodyguard Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio). One day he comes joined by an old friendcrime writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who invites him to a mysterious séance in the sumptuous but disturbing home of psychic Mrs. Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh).
The event is held to help a grieving womanRowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), whose daughter, Alicia Drake (Rowan Robinson), died in tragic circumstances but which many believe is still present as a spirit. During the session, Inexplicable phenomena test Poirot’s skepticism. But when one of the people present is brutally murderedthe investigator is forced to put his wits back into motion and go back into action to discover the truth.
Tina Fey and Kenneth Branagh in a scene from “Murder in Venice”. (Walt Disney Company)
A spooky adaptation of Agatha Christie’s famous book
Third chapter of the Hercule Poirot series played by Kenneth Branagh, Murder in Venice it is set in a dark and decadent lagoon where the mystery is intertwined with the atmospheres of the Gothic genre. Far from the pomp of the previous ones Murder on the Orient Express And Murder on the Nile, Branagh abandons the grand adventure tone for a more intimate tale and ghostly. Adapting, for the first time to the big screen, the novel Poirot and the Massacre of the Innocents.
Filmed with elegance and a veil of restlessness, Venice she thus becomes a character in her own right, surrounded by fog, water and silencethe perfect setting for a crime steeped in pain and secrets. The actor and director then, once again impeccable, outlines a more fragile and tormented Poirotalmost haunted by the ghosts of the past.
Even with some slowness and a less ingenious plot compared to Christie’s best mysteries, the film conquers with its atmosphere and its elegant balance between rationality and fear. Refined, melancholic and visually hypnotic mystery, Murder in Venice he also photographs the city as a labyrinth of shadows and fogthus becoming a symbol of Poirot’s tormented mind. Forced to deal with fear, doubt and, unexpectedly, faith.
The very rich cast of Murder in Venice: Riccardo Scamarcio is also there
In addition to Branagh’s skill and craft, the film can count on a parterre of actors who give textbook performances. Starting with American comedian Tina Fey who surprises in a role different from her usual registers: his Ariadne is ironic but also melancholycapable of lightening the tension without ever compromising the dramatic tone of the story.
Also in the cast is Michelle Yeoh, in the role of the medium, who gives a magnetic interpretationbuilt on looks and silences rather than words, elegantly embodying the border between reality and mystery.
Jamie Dornan also stands out among the supporting actorsconvincing in the role of a war-scarred doctor, and Jude Hill. Riccardo Scamarcio is also very good in the role of the faithful bodyguard of the investigator who acts as a bridge between Poirot and the Venetian environment full of mysteries and buried secrets.