Some movies make us want to pack our bags and set off on that one trip where we will do all the things we must do before we die. Then, there are some movies that decide to cut the wings of wanderlust and remind us to be satisfied with our roots. The Venice Murders is an easy watch that is careful with its time. It is just the right amount of self-indulgence, and full marks to the person who chose the locations because, despite the very small budget, it all looks genuinely beautiful. It isn’t a very heavy or convoluted story, and here is the summary and ending of The Venice Murders.

Spoiler Alert 

Why Did Izzy And Rosa Fall Out?

The reason why the sisters haven’t spoken in so long isn’t revealed until the end of The Venice Murders, but we just wish that it had been something stronger. Either way, it was a simple case of an accident. When Celia was a child, Rosa took care of her when her mother had gone out of the house. Rosa had her finals the next day, and she was stressed about it, which she says is probably the reason for her mistake. The power had gone out, and Rosa put Celia to sleep, but she didn’t observe that there was a candle near the blowing curtains and that there was a fire in the room, which likely put Celia in danger and was the result of Rosa’s oversight. That is what the sisters fought about, and though Izzy forgave Rosa after a while, Rosa did not come back because the guilt of that incident never left her. Rosa has built a life for herself in Venice, Italy, and stayed away from her family all these years until her niece came tumbling through her doors. Celia is not aware of why her mother and her aunt don’t speak to each other, but she seems curious about her relative nonetheless.

How Was Evie Kidnapped?

Celia has moved to Venice to study, and she makes a friend on her first day, Evie. Celia has also developed a crush on her college assistant, Matteo, a person who escorts her to the institution and is responsible for helping her around. Evie has met Matteo, and she sets up a triple date where the two girls go out with Matteo for dinner. Matteo takes them to a diner, where we see that he knows the owner and the chef, Dante. Evie leaves after the dinner because she wants to give Matteo and Celia some alone time. Not comfortable with letting her go alone, Celia insists on accompanying her, but Evie is nowhere to be found. Celia realizes that Evie has been kidnapped when she is missing even the next day, and the police tell her that Matteo is a fraud who was misleading her the whole time.

From this point on, Celia starts doing the work of the police. She finds Matteo at the river, where she first met him. This is what the police should have been doing, but either way, Dante gets in the way, and Celia hurts herself while trying to escape him. She manages to go to her aunt’s place, and they are meeting after ages. When Celia tells her about the entire case, Rosa says that they can find the restaurant if Celia is able to remember what she ate and what it was like. One of the people that Rosa had dated in the past was a food critic, and he had a knack for remembering each and every place he had ever eaten at, along with the taste of the food. It was too bad that he cheated on Rosa with someone named Gabriella; otherwise, they would have still been together. But the past is the past, and when in the present, Celia describes the food to him, he is able to identify the restaurant exactly since they are the only ones to use a particular spice. Matteo and Dante’s real names are Luca and Renzo, and they have probably come up with this entire scheme to pay off their debts that their father incurred.

 Does Celia Find Evie?

Renzo is absolutely ruthless, and he wants to kill Evie since she has seen them, and considering that Celia is also aware of them, the police would be hot on their trail. But if Evie is killed and her body is not to be found, the focus would shift to her, and the brother would have a chance to escape. It is very weak reasoning, but The Venice Murders is doing the best it can, and we don’t mind. Luca, aka Matteo, doesn’t agree with Renzo’s thinking, and he wants to let Evie go, but Renzo is clearly the one in charge, and he doesn’t care for Luca’s softness.

Meanwhile, when Rosa and Celia go to the restaurant, they don’t find anybody there, but they spot a photograph of a warehouse, and Rosa recognizes the place. Celia immediately goes there, only to find an injured Matteo. He had tried to help Evie escape, but his brother had come back at the last minute, and they had gotten into a fight, with Matteo getting seriously injured. Celia rushes to the docks to protect Evie, and she has arrived just in time, as Renzo was clearly about to kill her and escape. He was so desperate that he didn’t even wait for the ransom money he had asked for. Either way, there is a fight between Celia and Renzo, with the latter getting the better of her, but at the end of The Venice Murders, Celia gets her hands on something she uses as a weapon and successfully fights off Renzo. She has effectively solved the case for the police, and Evie is safe. A few months later, Rosa and Izzy have reconciled, and Celia is working as a professor at the college. Everything is sorted out, and the film has a happy ending.

Final Thoughts

The Venice Murders does not make the Italian police look good. They were pretty much figureheads throughout the film, and Celia was doing her work. It is forgivable as a fictional liberty, especially considering that The Venice Murders did its best to be sharp and work well with the limited time and resources it had. It is good enough not to skip when playing on television.