Hercule Poirot has retired.

After solving two big screen mysteries (Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and Death on the Nile in 2022), master detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh, who also directed) has removed himself to a genteel retirement, living in seclusion in Venice. Aside from a twice-daily delivery from the local baker, Poirot’s only human contact is with his bodyguard, Vitale Portfoglio (Riccardo Scarmicio), who beats off the throngs of people seeking Poirot’s help with their own mysteries. (He does quite literally beat them away.)

Then, one day, Poirot receives a visitor that he does not have Portfoglio shoo away: Ariadne Oliver, played by Tina Fey. Oliver and Poirot are long-time friends – she’s a character in the Agatha Christie novels that birthed Poirot. Essentially a stand-in character for the author herself, Oliver is a world-famous mystery author – perhaps the most famous author in the world.

Oliver despairs of Poirot’s seclusion, and offers him a challenge, to reawaken his love of sleuthing: she has discovered a practicing psychic medium whose gimmick she hasn’t sussed out yet. She wants Poirot to help her do just that when the psychic performs her next seance, at the enormous yet decrepit palazzo of opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). Oliver also has ulterior motives here; she is counting on using Poirot’s discovery as the basis for her next best-seller.

The seance is to follow a Halloween party given by the singer for some orphan children, and of course, Poirot gives in to Oliver’s prodding and attends. While there, he learns of the legends surrounding the palazzo: it is haunted by the ghosts of the children who were left to die when the palazzo, formerly an orphanage, was abandoned.

A more recent tragedy involves Drake’s daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson), who died under mysterious circumstances a year earlier; it is she whom Rowena wishes to contact.

While the children’s party goes on, our main cast of potential victims and villains assembles, including the main attraction, medium Joyce Reynolds, played by the excellent Michelle Yeoh. After the orphan children leave, she begins her show in Alicia Drake’s bedroom.

And thus the mystery begins, and before long, someone is the victim of an attempted murder, and someone is truly murdered. Recognizing his opportunity, Poirot locks down the palazzo, reasoning that he has the perpetrator (or perpetrators), as well as any witnesses, in hand. Of course, that means that everyone remaining who is not the murderer is in some considerable danger.

To say more would spoil the mystery, but it is worth mentioning the guest list for this murder mystery party – any one of which could be either the killer(s) or the murdered party.

• Poirot, of course, and his gal pal Ariadne Oliver, who are both working to discover the killer.
• Rowena Drake, the hostess, who has lost the will to sing – and live – after her daughter’s death.
• The medium Joyce Reynolds, who may have discovered a long-buried secret in the palazzo.
• Poirot’s bodyguard Portfoglio, who is a former policeman who was first on the scene when Alicia died.
• Rowena’s housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin), who despite her devout faith, refuses to ever spend the night in the palazzo.
• The Drake’s family doctor, Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan), who is himself haunted by what he saw in World War II, which ended two years earlier.
• Drake’s son Leopold (Jude Hill), who is a quiet, reserved child who reads Edgar Allan Poe for fun and knows a lot more than he lets on.
• Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), the cocky American chef who was engaged to Alicia, and who may have been behind her death, even if unintentionally.
• Desdemona Howard (Emma Laird), who is Joyce’s assistant, and who would do anything to make her dream of moving to St. Louis, Missouri, a reality.
• Nicholas Howard (Ali Khan), Desdemona’s brother who plays a mysterious part in the seances, and who shares his sister’s desire to leave Europe.
• The ghost of Alicia, who it seems only Poirot can see.

Branagh effectively weaves the possibility of the supernatural – and possibly the actuality of it – into the mystery, adding effective jump scares, ghostly apparitions, and uses the shadowy gloom of the palazzo to great effect. The film is based on a Christie novel, The Hallowe’en Party, which was published in 1969, but only the bare bones of that story remain in the screenplay, which was renovated almost entirely by Michael Green.

The performances in Venice range from perfectly serviceable to impressive, with Yeoh of course owning the few scenes she is in, Dornan, best known as Christian Grey in the 50 Shades series of films, doing a fine job as a man who has been destroyed by war. Fey does a game impression of Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday, and of course Branagh is great in his third turn at playing the great detective, just with a little less bombast than usual. From the rest of the cast, the lesser-known Cottin and Laird are both particularly good, and young actor Jude Hill is exceptional.

As for the mystery, well, it’s not as intriguing once you take away the supernatural elements, but it isn’t a bad little whodunnit. A Haunting in Venice is in theaters now.