Simon Curtis' "art lover triumphs over Nazis' story Woman in Gold asks us to accept a lot that we normally wouldn't. It's one of those sappy, rainbow-colored, easily digestible, well-meaning and generally toothless "inspirational true stories™" that come along and make a momentary impression. It leaves one filled, briefly, with the knowledge that more often than not good wins out over evil. But we're willing to forgive the many emotional shortcuts taken by Curtis and first-time screenwriter Alexi Kaye Campbell because of the strength of the emotional strength in the story they are telling, and another steely yet vulnerable performance by the great Helen Mirren.
It certainly doesn't hurt that the woman
Mirren plays, Maria Altmann, is looking to retrieve what the Nazis stole from
her family during WWII. Who's going to root against that? Altmann was part of
an upper crust Jewish family who saw their most prized possessions stolen from
them, including invaluable pieces of art. One of those pieces was Gustav
Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, valued at more than $100M, but
the monetary value isn't why Maria wants it back. The painting holds special
significance because it's of her favorite aunt, Adele, and Maria wants to
reclaim that part of her heritage that was stolen. Now that the painting has
become one of Austria's crown jewels, hanging in Vienna's Belvedere Gallery
since its seizure, the government doesn't want to give it back.
Enter Ryan Reynolds as Maria's seemingly
incompetent lawyer, Randy, who has long been out of touch with his own Jewish
heritage. What better way to reconnect than by fighting to correct such a terrible
injustice? While hesitant at first, a couple of slices of pie and Randy
is ready to embark on a Philomena-style
journey of self-discovery and painful truths. And part of that truth is
Austria's continued dabbling in the dark side of the Force, apparently. Flying
off to Vienna, Maria and Randy come face-to-face with shockingly unfeeling
government officials who might as well be twirling their mustaches and tying
damsels to railroad tracks. Other than an altruistic journalist (Daniel Bruhl),
Austria seems to be stuck in the 1940s, unable to put the past behind them.
Good thing Maria's there to force them to see the error of their ways,
with a sharp word and the glare of a woman who has put many people in their place
over the years. And who doesn't like to watch arrogant bureaucrats put in their
place? For that matter, who plays an old battleax better than Helen Mirren?
Art reclamation and ownership are
difficult, complicated subjects and the modern scenes do get bogged down in the
details of the investigation. When not being denied by government stooges, much
of Maria and Randy's time is spent digging through old files. Fortunately, the
search triggers vivid flashbacks to the old days when a young Maria (played
terrifically by Orphan
Black's Tatiana Maslany) faced hatred more directly. The subtlety the
modern era scenes lack emerge when we're taken back to the 1940s, adding
texture and context to Maria's story. She desires a life with an actual future,
but to have it she must leave everyone and everything she holds dear. The
pain she endured back then illuminates our understanding of Maria’s hatred of Austria
in the present. Randy eventually comes to his own understanding of the past,
but it's done in the most mawkish way possible, literally by spending about 30
seconds at the Jewish Holocaust Memorial before exploding in a tearful rage.
Even the courtroom scenes, which feature Elizabeth McGovern and Jonathan Pryce
as two cartoonishly flamboyant judges, don't pay respect to the complexities of
the issue.
Smartly, the film never makes the
painting's monetary value the driving force behind Maria's mission. Reclaiming
a small piece of her family's heritage remains foremost in her thoughts, and
unlike in the similarly-themed The
Monuments Men, we are shown why the paintings have such great sentimental
value. Truly the most fascinating aspects of Woman
in Gold are learning about
the portrait and the circumstances behind its creation, the people it affected
and continues to affect. Mirren is perfectly cast as Maria, a woman who
stubbornly holds on to her culture while living in culture-free Los Angeles. If
it's made her a bit edgy and angry by the end of the film we understand why. The
same can't be said of Reynolds who is incredibly flat as Randy. He reaches new
levels of dullness when paired with Katie Holmes, who plays his quietly
supporting wife, who sits at home and watches the kids while he gallivants
around the world. Bruhl is given little to do at all, sadly, but Maslany shows
once again why she's going to be a huge star even after her hit TV series ends.
Her delicate, heartfelt performance,
along with that of Mirren, illuminates what is a conventional but powerful
story.
Rating: 3 out of 5
