A HAUNTING IN VENICE : Tuesday 19th September 2023

I saw the M Rated 'A HAUNTING IN VENICE' earlier this week, and this American supernatural mystery film is Co-Produced, Directed and stars Kenneth Branagh and is based on the 1969 novel 'Hallowe'en Party' by Agatha Christie. The film serves as the sequel to 2022's 'Death on the Nile' which was itself a sequel to 2017's 'Murder on the Orient Express' in which Branagh portrays the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, as well as serving as Director on those two previous outings. The film was released in the US and here in Australia last week, has so far grossed US$42M off the back of a US$60M production budget and has garnered generally positive critical reviews.

The film opens with Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) waking up startled from a nightmare. He is living a life of retirement in 1947 Venice, Italy having become disillusioned with God and humanity having witnessed first hand the cruelty man can bestow upon his fellow man. Poirot employs local retired Police Officer Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scamarcio) as his bodyguard. Having visited the local market later that morning and procured himself his supply of breakfast pastries, there comes a knock at his apartment door. Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) is at the door - Poirot's long term friend and novelist who has penned thirty books so far of which twenty-seven were best sellers but the last three not so much. It is Halloween, and Oliver persuades Poirot to attend a seance at the palazzo of renowned opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly) and help expose psychic medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) as a fake.

Later that night, Poirot, Ariadne and Vitale are all taken by gondola along the canals of Venice to Rowena's palazzo, where there is a children's Halloween party in full swing, and we learn through this that the palazzo is on the site of a former children's hospital at which there were numerous children's deaths and the ghosts of those children still haunt the place to this day. After the children have all left for the evening, the adults that remain are Rowena's guests for the seance - they are Joyce Reynolds who Rowena has hired to help her communicate with her daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson), who committed suicide after her fiance, chef Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), broke off their engagement; Rowena's housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin); the Drake family doctor Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and his nine year old son Leopold (Jude Hill) and Reynolds' assistant Desdemona Holland (Emma Laird). 

At midnight all the gathered guests assemble in Alicia's bedroom which has remained exactly as she left it the day she died. During the seance, Poirot quickly deduces that Reynolds has not one assistant but two, revealing Desdemona's half-brother Nicholas (Ali Khan) hiding in the chimney of Alicia's bedroom and manipulating a typewriter with a magnetic device that is all part of Reynolds ruse. Reynold's then speaks to Rowena in Alicia's voice, revealing that she was murdered, and states the killer is one of the guests present in the room. Poirot attempts to confront Reynolds about her act, who gives him the brush off and puts her mask and cloak on him and tells him to lighten up. Taking this advice and while attempting to bob for apples, while nobody is watching, Poirot is nearly drowned by an unknown assailant. Reynolds is then found impaled on a statue in the courtyard minutes later. 

Meanwhile, a storm gathers momentum outside, which ultimately cuts off the palazzo until such time as it subsides. Poirot therefore begins his investigations by interviewing the guests, during which time he hallucinates seeing Alicia's ghost, and hears the sound of a female singing, although no one else can hear it. The investigation yields baffling results, namely that Leslie, who is severely traumatised from his experiences at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, is secretly in love with Rowena. Leopold says he hears the voices from the spirits of children who were left to die back when the palazzo was a plague hospital.
Maxime, who was a last minute addition to the guest list broke off his engagement because he felt Rowena did not approve of him and that Alicia was obsessed with keeping her happy; and Nicholas and Desdemona, both Romani refugees, have been stealing from Joyce and intend to use the money to travel to St. Louis, Missouri, which they fell in love with after seeing the first half of the film 'Meet Me in St. Louis' at a displaced persons camp.

Shortly after, the guests come across a previously hidden basement containing the skeletal remains of the dead children, and Leslie suffers a panic attack and nearly kills Maxime. He is locked inside the music room to recover, with Rowena handing Poirot the only key. After examining Maxime's invitation, Poirot deduces Oliver sent it and that she and Vitale conspired to bring him to the palazzo. Vitale explains he investigated Alicia's death and fished her out of the canal, while Oliver admits she hoped to use Poirot's incapability of explaining the seance as a plot for her next book. Leslie is soon afterward found stabbed to death in the music room to which Poirot had the only means of access.

Poirot brings the remaining guests together, and exposes Rowena as the murderer. She was obsessed with keeping Alicia to herself and, after learning she planned to reconcile with Maxime, used honey extracted from poisonous rhododendron blooms to weaken her, using small doses at a time. When Olga unknowingly gave Alicia tea containing a large fatal dose, Rowena staged Alicia's suicide to prevent exposing herself. When she began receiving blackmail threats, Rowena suspected either Joyce or Leslie. She pushed Joyce to her death after mistakenly attempting to drown Poirot and forced Leslie into stabbing himself via the palazzo's internal phone line, threatening to kill Leopold if he refused. Rowena flees to the roof garden in an attempt to escape, followed by Poirot, but Alicia's ghost seemingly appears from behind and pulls Rowena down, causing her to fall to her death in the canal below. 

Come sun up and the case cracked open in a few short hours, Poirot bids goodbye to Oliver, elects not to turn Vitale in to the local Police for his involvement in the seance, and privately exposes Leopold as the blackmailer. Leopold explains he understood the poisoning signs his father missed and made the connection after realising Rowena's first starring role was in an opera whose lead character was known as the 'king of poisons'. Poirot suggests to Leopold and Olga that to clear their consciences they should use the blackmail money to help Desdemona and Nicholas start a new life in St. Louis before returning home to accept a new case.

Three Agatha Christie big screen adaptations in, and Director and lead Actor Kenneth Branagh has more than settled in to his routine of bringing Hercule Poirot to life, with all his eccentricities and idiosyncrasies firmly intact. Branagh has crafted a solid enough film here that is sure to please those that enjoy a good whodunnit, Venice is shot beautifully, the cast is more than up for the task, and this Gothic inspired supernatural thriller for me sits between 'Murder on the Orient Express' and 'Death on the Nile' that offers the audience a more grounded view of Poirot's methods of deduction, even if at times it defies logic. All within the space of four of five hours Poirot is able to solve not one, not two, but three murders and tie up a whole bunch of loose ends very neatly before moving on to his next case before breakfast - if you can believe it!

'A Haunting in Venice' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

HOUSE OF GUCCI : Tuesday 4th January 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'HOUSE OF GUCCI' at my local multiplex earlier this week, and this is an American biographical crime drama film Directed by Ridley Scott in his second film release this year following 'The Last Duel' released in Australia at the end of October. This film is based on the 2001 book 'The House of Gucci : A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed' by Sara Gay Forden. The World Premiere screening of 'House of Gucci' was held at London's Leicester Square in early November 2021, was theatrically released in the US in late November 2021 and here in Australia on New Years Day. The film has received mixed reviews from critics, and it has so far grossed US$127M from a production budget of US$75M.

The film is inspired by the shocking true story of the family behind the Italian fashion empire, Gucci, and opens up in 1978 in Milan, where we see Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) working as an office manager for her fathers small but nonetheless successful trucking company. At a birthday party, Patrizia meets Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), an unassuming law student and heir to a 50% stake in the Gucci fashion house through his father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons). In time Maurizio introduces Patrizia to his father, who in turn warns his son not to consider marrying the woman as he sees her as a social climber and only after his money, warning him that he will disinherit him if he goes ahead with a marriage. 

Ultimately Maurizio has little or no interest in the Gucci empire, and marries Patrizia anyway. Rodolfo kicks his son out of the family home and he lands a job at his now father-in-laws trucking business, where he says that he has never been happier. Patrizia later falls pregnant, and she sees this as a means for Rodolfo and Maurizio to reconcile their differences. She inadvertently tells Maurizio's uncle Aldo (Al Pacino) that she is pregnant. Aldo is delighted by the news and takes the couple under his wing, inviting them to New York. Aldo introduces Patrizia to his unintelligent and 'stupid' son Paolo (an unrecognisable Jared Leto), who aspires to be a Gucci designer despite his complete lack of talent. 

Thanks to Aldo, Maurizio and a terminally ill Rodolfo reconcile after being told the happy news that he is now a grandfather to their daughter Alessandra, shortly before Rodolfo's death. Rodolfo writes Maurizio back into his will, but fails to sign the necessary document transferring the Gucci shares to him before he dies. Patrizia fakes Rodolfo's signature, giving Maurizio a 50% share of Gucci.

Patrizia begins to hatch a scheme to obtain a controlling interest in Gucci by acquiring some of Aldo and Paolo's shares (the two hold the other 50% stake). She sees an ad on the TV for Giuseppina 'Pina' Auriemma (Salma Hayek), a psychic, whom she contacts for advice and guidance. She begins to manipulate Maurizio, who has little real interest in Gucci, into taking a more active role within the company. Paolo acquires proof that Aldo has been evading taxes in the US and so gives the proof to Patrizia in exchange for her promise that he will be allowed to design his own line, under the Gucci name. 

Aldo is later arrested by the IRS and sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Patrizia lies to the Italian Police and tells them that Paolo is not authorised to use the Gucci trademark, and so during a fashion show where Paolo is showcasing his collection the Police storm in and halt the show by force. Patrizia and Maurizio ask Paolo to sell them his shares, but he rebuffs them and cuts all contact between them.

Italian Police raid Maurizio's house and attempt to arrest Maurizio for forging Rodolfo's signature. He evades them by riding over to the border with Switzerland on his motorbike and has Patrizia and Alessandra join them a few days later. In the meantime Maurizio has renewed acquaintances with his old friend Paola Franchi (Camille Cottin). An argument later erupts between Maurizio and Patrizia, and Maurizio decides that he is tired of his wife's influence over himself, as well as the company. 

He orders his wife and daughter to return to Italy and begins an affair with Paola, which Pina has apparently sensed. When Maurizio's business plans begin to impact the company negatively he seeks assistance from equity company Investcorp, through which he hatches a plan to acquire shares of the company from a now-impoverished Paolo. Aldo is released from prison and Paolo tells his father what he has done. Aldo is incensed. When Investcorp offers to buy Aldo out, he refuses until Maurizio reveals himself as the deal's instigator. Completely dejected and betrayed, Aldo reluctantly sells the shares and cuts all ties with Maurizio.

Patrizia tries to reconcile with Maurizio, but he is not interested in the slightest. Later, he asks Patrizia for a divorce through his long-time assistant Domenico De Sole (Jack Houston), which Patrizia angrily refuses. Maurizio is looking to revitalise the brand image of Gucci and so recruits (almost as a last resort because every other 'name' had turned them down) up-and-coming designer Tom Ford (Reeve Carney). Ford's collections are well received at his launch fashion show and prove successful, but Maurizio has so thoroughly mismanaged the company's finances that Investcorp's leaders feel compelled to buy him out, offering him US$150M and replacing him with Ford and De Sole. Patrizia becomes so angered with Maurizio that she asks Pina to help her kill him. Pina puts Patrizia in contact with some hitmen 'from Sicily' and a few days later, the hit-men shoot Maurizio to death in broad daylight outside his office. 

Afterwards we see Patrizia and Alessandra knocking on the door of Maurizio's residence, for it to be answered by Paola. The pair share a tearful embrace, and then Patrizia orders Paola out of her home, immediately. In the closing scene we fast track two years, and in a courtroom the Judge presides of Patrizia, Pina and the two hitmen. The Judge asks a question of Patrizia Reggiani, who replies, 'my name is Patrizia Gucci'. Just before the end credits roll, the screen reveals that Aldo Gucci died of prostate cancer in 1990; Paolo Gucci died almost penniless in London in 1995; Patrizia was sentenced to twenty-nine years in prison, and Pina and the hitman and getaway driver received sentences of 25 years or more for the murder. Gucci is fully purchased by Investcorp who turn the business around and make it into the fashion empire it still is to this day, while no Gucci family members remain at the business today.  

'House of Gucci' reminded me in some small ways of the 1980's American TV soap opera series 'Dynasty' and 'Dallas' and seeing all those rich folk squabble and squander their millions of dollars and scheme their way in and out of each others business, more often that not with dire consequences. This is Lady Gaga's film make no mistake and for her portrayal of Patrizia there has to be an Oscar nod in there I'm sure, while Al Pacino as Aldo and Adam Driver as Maurizio also make compelling performances. As for the unrecognisable Jared Leto as Paolo, his performance is so over the top camp and impish that it's no wonder he was prepared to go full undercover so as not to be recognised! This is a highly entertaining film about love and loss, backstabbing and betrayal, money and murder all delivered neatly with the full gloss and panache that is Ridley Scott's trademark, who at the age of eighty-four is still churning out movies that command your attention, are engaging and have something to say. At two hours 37 minutes this film is over-lengthy at the mid-section before stumbling towards the finish line, but that said, 'House of Gucci' is nonetheless an enjoyable, sharply dressed romp of fashion and greed that ultimately brought the House of Gucci down, but not out. 

'House of Gucci' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-