Woman in Gold

'Woman in Gold' makes for a dazzling movie experience (even if at times it may leave you questioning it's authenticity). Having not been an admirer of Mirren's early screen work - she seems to have become better with age (well, for me anyway), I was taken with her portrayal of Maria Altman from start to finish (as also in 'The Queen'). Ryan Reynolds gives good support as the young Lawyer taking on a case above his station. Reynolds, whose style is somewhat reminiscent of a young Kevin Costner, plays the Randol Schoenberg part with conviction.

London born director Simon Curtis gives the proceedings an easy to watch style and with the help of documentary editor Peter Lambert, they keep the viewer engaged throughout. Curtis also gets to direct his American wife (in a guest style role) Elizabeth McGovern, who has since made England her home. First time feature screenplay writer Alexi Kaye Campbell has fashioned an interesting interpretation of the writings of Altman and Schoeenberg's own life experiences, looking back at yet another of humanity's all time low past atrocities - although as mentioned, for some, certain sections of the screenplay may not always ring true (?)

Cinematographer Ross Emery (Matrix) gets a chance to prove he's also good without the help of tons of big budget CGI. It's hard to tell who did what with the music score, credited to both Martin Phipps and Hans Zimmer but, it's pleasing in an unobtrusive manor. Design Guru's, Andrew Ackland-Snow and brothers Dominic and Giles Masters (Harry Potter) with the help of others, ensure it looks good - perhaps while also getting a chance to strut their stuff without being drenched in CGI.

As a minor point, some location settings in Austria seemed a little too devoid of people to give an accurate representation, still, it's an amazing human story, both informative and entertaining. It should please most sophisticated audiences, while letting us reflect on an episode from our dark past.

I thought that this was a very entertaining and informative film, which sets the scene naturally.

It was not overly dramatised or forced and with excellent performances; particularly from Helen Mirren and Tatiana Maslany who played the same character at different ages perfectly in harmony with each other; showing how history can change people from youthful optimism to pragmatism and a wistfulness for a glorious past.

History buffs will find it a fascinating foray into the glory of Vienna's past. Though art stolen by Nazis is a theme recently explored by movies such as The Monuments Men, this part of the Second World War has not been really explored by the movie industry; I am sure there are more stories to come. There have been a few movies about Austria and the Third Reich, the Sound of Music springs to mind. This one compares favourably with both the aforementioned films.

Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds star in "Woman in Gold" from 2015, a true story about the quest of Maria Altmann to recover art stolen from her family by the Nazis in Vienna, the seat of anti-Semitism in Europe.

I just want to point out, to answer some of the reviews, that this is not a documentary, it's a movie. Movies combine events, change them around, omit them. No one wants to watch a tedious film that recognizes that it took a huge amount of time to get to the Supreme Court. If you want the actual, factual story of Maria Altmann's journey, you will need to read about it or see one of several documentaries. Films are meant to pique our interest.

Altmann speaks with a young attorney, Randy Shoenberg, about recovering The Woman in Gold, a painting by Klimt that is considered a symbol of Vienna. Klimt in fact painted a series of stunning portraits of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, who died of meningitis at the age of 44.

In her will, she asked her husband Ferdinand, who had seen the writing on the wall in Vienna and fled to Prague, to donate the paintings to the Austrian State Gallery.

Although he has just started a new job, Shoenberg travels to Vienna to see the will. Along the way there are flashbacks of Vienna in the '30s, where the Bloch-Bauer family lived in opulence. When the Nazis came to their home, they stripped the place of everything valuable - and there was a lot -- and put the family under house arrest.

Maria and her husband, an opera singer, manage to escape in a harrowing scene. In flashbacks, Maria is played by the remarkable Tatiana Maslany, the star of "Orphan Black," who looks incredibly like a brunette Mirren.

This is a touching, beautifully told story of one man's sacrifice and determination and a woman facing up to her past in order to seek justice.

Helen Mirren is one of my favorite actresses - here, she is a vibrant, energetic octogenarian who finds the struggle for the painting uncomfortable - several times, meeting a roadblock, she is ready to wash her hands of it, but Schoenberg won't let her. It represents her family to her, and some uncomfortable memories. You can see all of that in Mirren's multilayered performance.

Reynolds is excellent as a young man who believes in taking a chance - - he started and failed in his own law practice - and in this case, going for the gold, despite the fact that he has a wife (Katie Holmes), a baby, and one on the way, and an intolerant boss. It doesn't faze him and when Maria wants to quit, he is furious.

I disagree that there was no connection between them. In fact, there is a deep one. The quest for the painting comes to represent to him what it means to Maria

I highly recommend this film. There are tons of movies about the horrors perpetrated on Jews by the Nazis. The recovery of stolen art is one part of that horror. "You see a painting," she tells a group. "I see my aunt."

The Woman in Gold is based on the true story about a woman, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), and her lawyer, Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), as they attempt to reclaim ownership of an extremely valuable painting (along with a few more) form the Austrian government nearly fifty years after it was stolen by the Nazis. This film has three distinct parts that intertwine through the duration of the show. First, there is a family dynamic that focuses on the emotional stress of the current situation on everyone's personal lives. There is a strong connection between Randol and Maria that grows over time and is given time to grow in these segments. Second, there are flashbacks that dive deeper into Maria's past and emphasize the importance of the artwork as well as explore parallels between the past and the present. Finally there is the trial itself, which is where the action of the conflict lies. This is the least important, yet still necessary part of the story. The percentage of time given to these segments would be around 40/40/20, respectively. While you might be surprised how much of the story takes place in the past, it really does drive the plot. There are many white-knuckle scenes and heart wrenching moments that really add to the film. The past is just as important as the present in this movie, and that is exactly what the film is trying to say. Helen Mirren, as always, was amazing in this film. She was subtle and drove many of the scenes that required raw emotion. Ryan Reynolds was also very good and his role in this film might have been his best performance (from what I have seen). Actually, all of the actors did a fantastic job here. Everyone was on there A-Game and gave it everything they had. There was great chemistry between Mirren and Reynolds which made their characters' connection even more compelling. Reynolds was able to subtly change his character as the case slowly changed his motivations. While, yes, there are a few clichéd scenes that were put in there for emotional levity and drama, but they don't really take much away, if anything. This was an excellent film and I highly recommend it.

The lady in question is Adele Bloch-Bauer who was the subject of a magnificent painting, deploying lots of gold, by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. Following the Anschuss of 1938 when Germany took over Austria, this painting was one of many, many artefacts seized by the Nazis from Jewish families in occupied Europe.

The film tells the story - a little fictionalised - of Adele's niece Maria Altmann who escaped from Vienna to live in California and, during the 1980s as an octogenarian, pursued an audacious claim to take back this painting and other Klimt works from the Austrian Government. Helen Mirren is brilliant as Altmann in another distinguished performance in a sparkling career during which she has played everything from "The Queen" to an assassin (RED"), while Ryan Reynolds is surprisingly good as her lawyer Randy Schoenberg in a role a million miles from "Green Lantern" or "Deadpool".

There's a lot going on in this film: legal battles over the art work with some classic courtroom scenes, flashbacks (in sepia colours) to Altmann's earlier life in 1930s Vienna, and an evolving relationship between the irascible Altmann and the idealistic Schoenberg, both descendants of famous Austrians. This is not the kind of film that was ever going to be a major box office draw but it is certainly worth a home viewing.