THE LAST TIME I VISITED THE city, the museum was closed; so, I was excited that I was finally able to get inside this time. The museum building itself was originally a millionaire’s mansion. But it was nothing like any of the mansions I had seen on walking tours or driving by. This structure had a combination of marble and granite, making it look partially like a Venetian palace from the 15^th century. The owner who had this place built was an art collector, philanthropist and patron of the arts. The owner’s intentions were to have their art collection permanently housed and displayed in the house for everyone to come and enjoy them. Upon their death an endowment was created to turn the mansion into a “living” museum. I had heard many things about the place, but I wanted to see it for myself. There was something fascinating about going through someone’s place from a century ago to see how they lived back then, besides seeing how many things they were able to collect in their lifetime. From what I read, artists they were fond of would come and pay a call to them from time to time. And they collected from multiple genres such as paintings, sculptures, textiles, and a variety of historical items.      ONCE I WAS ADMITTED INSIDE, I was taken aback by the largeness of the hallways. The walls were stone/brick, and the floors were some types of flagstones or slate. There were two suits of armor positioned across from each other. Further down there was a tapestry hanging on the wall that filled that portion of the wall from the floor to ceiling. It looked ancient to me. I walked into a room that had artwork covering all the walls. Some of the works I was able to recognize the artists, but others I did not have a clue because nothing was labeled. The room must have been used as a sitting room, I am guessing, for visitors who first arrived. There was a sofa lushly upholstered in a thick damask fabric with two heavy chairs on either side. In front of the sofa was a small table that had a vase on it that looked Asian, but again I had no idea if it meant anything. As I made my way through the museum, I appreciated the amount of effort and money it must have taken to acquire such a massive collection. The artworks were beautiful, and I appreciated that the guidebook talked about a few of them for each room; however, there were more times than not, I did not know what I was looking at. It was disappointing. Interestingly, I felt the same way about seeing this murder mystery drama.      CONTENT WITH RETIRED LIFE, FORMER DETECTIVE Hercule Poirot, played by Kenneth Branagh (Oppenheimer, My Week with Marilyn), reluctantly agrees to go with a friend to a séance. When one of the guests is found murdered, Detective Poirot has no choice but to find the culprit. With Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Gunpowder Milkshake) as Mrs. Reynolds, Jamie Dornan (Belfast, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as Dr. Leslie Ferrier, Tina Fey (Wine Country, Mean Girls) as Ariadne Oliver and relative newcomer Dylan Corbett Bader as Baker; this latest Agatha Christie story from Kenneth was the least interesting of his Christie films for me. The visuals were wonderful, set in Venice; but the script started out slowly and I never felt an emotional connection to any of the characters. They seemed to all be on the same plateau with no difference in feelings. As I said it was disappointing because I respected the cast and knew they could do so much more with their characters. Another thing, I was not fond of some of the camera shoots with their close-ups and shadows. They seemed to have been put in for effect that fell flat. Having recently been in Italy, I loved all the scenery filmed for this story; but I just felt empty by the end of the movie.                            

2 stars