A Haunting in Venice - 4K Digital Review

[Michael Scott]

A Haunting in Venice

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
Agatha Christie’s auspicious mystery novels has been trail blazers in the mystery world, probably only supplanted by Dorothy Sayers (and of course Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) for making some of the most memorable mystery books of all time. I grew up reading like an obsessed fanatic, absorbing anything from Louis Lamour westerns to Charles Dickens, to Tolkien, and then got bit by the mystery bug in my teens. Agatha Christie’s books were just incredibly dense and chewy, with a brilliant setup of how much information was shared to the reader before the big reveal, that I sometimes forget how hard that is to translate to the screen. A book makes it so easy, as there is 100s of pages of information to digest and twists and turns to navigate, while in a movie it’s a mere 2 hours or left to get the audience to where you need to be. Maybe that’s why Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot (one of her most famous characters) adaptations have suffered in really gaining traction with audiences. Don’t get me wrong, they’re enjoyable little jaunts with Branagh absolutely giving his heart and soul to the role as the intrepid detective, but for some reason they just seem to always fall short.

Well, that being said, the 3rd venture from Director/Star Branagh is actually pretty decent. Probably almost on par with Murder on the Orient Express and definitely above the mediocre Death on the Nile. The film starts out with a retired Hercule Poirot (Branagh), living his best life in his Venice flat, having pastries for breakfast and being watched over by his bodyguard in the interim. He gets sort of sucked into a halfway “investigation” when long time friend and author (who has written more than a few novels about him) Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) has a quandary. A local woman named Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly, of Yellowstone fame) is being preyed upon by a fake medium (Michelle Yeoh), but for the life of her, Ariadne can’t seem to figure out HOW she’s pulling off her “tricks”. So she recruits Hercule for one final side job in hopes of helping her unveil the medium for the fraudster for who she is.

As is the case with most of these mysteries, once Poirot is on site weird things start happening. He unveils the trickery of the medium soon enough, but immediately after the unveiling someone murders the medium! And to make matters worse, Poirot starts seeing things and hearing things that no one else can see, leaving him wondering whether he’s going mad, or if there really is a spirit realm out there after all.

A Haunting in Venice was taken from a lesser known Agatha Christie novel named Hallowe’en Party from 1969, and actually takes some MASSIVE liberties from the book. Events and places are changed to the point where A Haunting in Venice could actually be seen as it’s own original idea, or at least “loosely based” on the original novel. While the novel was never a massive hit, it still was different than most Agatha Christie novels in that it deal with the spirit realm, going so far as to actually make our stalwart investigator questions his own senses. Something that is translated well in the actual movie itself. The basic nature of the mystery is fairly straight forward and follows the pattern of the previous two films, but the movie does a wonderful job at dancing between stoicism and actual spiritual involvement to the point where they almost become intertwined. I thought it was a very clever mechanism, as it leaves the audience able to draw their own conclusions and keeps this air of mystery over the entire proceedings. Even though the bulk of what happened can be logically explained away.

Branagh gives it his heart and soul as always, playing Hercule Poirot as if he were in the middle of a Broadway production. Tina Fey was the one that actually surprised me here. I never thought of her being at home in an old Agatha Christie story, but she does a great job as the conniving and manipulative Ariadne. It may not be a perfect film, but the solid acting and chemistry between everyone involved was enough to elevate it into “rather good” territory.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for some strong violence, disturbing images and thematic elements




Video:

Being that Sony/Fox has decided to forego a 4K UHD release for A Haunting in Venice and ONLY going to release a 1080p Blu-ray on physical media, I guess this is the only way to get a 4K copy of the film. And as such, I’m going to break my rules a bit and actually give a score to the video section. Instead of depending on bandwidth I decided to let the entire film buffer to to completion before starting the watch in order to get the highest streaming bitrate possible on the endeavor.

The results are simply spectacular. Even though streaming does have some bitrate limitations so as to cut down on file size the end result on the 4K stream is jaw dropping. The opening shots with Poirot on top of his roof, or on the park bench with Ariadne Oliver, are razor sharp and full of colorful life. However, the film moves into the mansion and soon fades to a more monochromatic color grading, interspersed with splashes of color (such as a bloody knife, the golden amber lighting in the halls, or the green of Joyce Reynolds blouse). Shadow detail is superb, with only some minor banding (very typical of bitrate compressed streams) to mar the image up much. The Dolby Vision adds a lovely inky depth to the darker underground bits (such as in the cellar), and even the underwater shots look great (under water is always the most taxing on video quality). Superb from beginning to end.








Audio:

The Dolby Atmos stream is VERY impressive for a streaming audio mix. I usually have some gripes with streaming tracks sounding just a tad thin due to the compression, but A Haunting in Venice is a lot more robust than I was expecting. The surrounds are alive with rain in the background, or slamming doors, and the bass track is just utterly devastating. The jump scare where everyone investigates the cellar is just amazing. I vibrated the walls MULTIPLE times throughout as the track makes good use of startling bits of energy that slam you into the chair, then fade back to a more quiet and talky experience. The dialog is clean and clear, but I DID have some trouble with whispers, as the accents were a bit much for me without subtitles.







Extras:

• Murder, Death and Haunting: Featurette
• Deleted Scenes

Final Score: ​

A Haunting in Venice is a nice step up from the mildly disappointing A Death on the Nile. It’s less showy and more introspective, with a story that dances a fine line between the hard and cold logic of Poirot, and the delicate hints of the supernatural at play. Being that it’s taken from one of Agatha Christie’s lesser known novels, it is not nearly so well known to audiences, and actually has a few surprises in store for us. The stream is quite pleasing in both it’s technical specs, and sadly this is the only way to get a 4K copy of the movie (outside of probably Kaleidescope) as the home video release is Blu-ray only. Honestly, this was a fun romp that has me giving it a solid thumbs up. Definitely a fun watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kenneth Branah, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Kelly Reilly
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Written by: Michael Green (Screenplay), Agatha Christie (Novel)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos
Subtitles: English
Studio: Disney/Buena Vista
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 103 Minutes
Digital Release Date: October 31st, 2023

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Which provider did you use for the digital viewing?

 

[Michael Scott]

Which provider did you use for the digital viewing?

VUDU. i find it the best of the "Movies Anywhere" providers