Woman In Gold follows the story of a Jewish octogenarian who takes on the Austrian government in order to recover a painting that rightfully belonged to her family, which was stolen by the Nazi’s during World War II. The film stars Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl, Katie Holmes and Charles Dance. Woman In Gold is directed by Simon Curtis and has a run time of 109 minutes.
Woman In Gold Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNnHk80rMg
Woman In Gold Review
Woman In Gold is an interesting film to watch if you like the history surrounding World War II as well as art restitution cases, as it’s focused primarily on these two themes. We follow Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) who is a lawyer set on doing some good in the world by helping Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren) get her painting back. Maria Altman had her families portrait of the “Woman In Gold” stolen by the Nazi’s where it ended up in the hands of the Austrian government and they won’t give it back, even when asked nicely. So a court case ensues and we watch our two main characters fight really hard in court to get the portrait back.
Woman In Gold is a nicely done film with great acting from all the cast and the directing from Simon Curtis is alright too. But the issue I had with it and likely others will to, is to do with knowing the ending. While it’s not in my interest to spoil it, let’s just say if you know who wins the case, you won’t really have a very suspenseful film. It’s really the only issue I have with The Woman In Gold and it’s the suspense, it doesn’t feel like it’s that dramatic at all really, whether you know the ending or not. It just kind of goes along and characters have some moments of trouble, but it’s not very dramatic or tense at all for a court room drama.
Acting wise, Ryan Reynolds is good to watch as he tries hard to win this court case. Reynolds plays a schoolboy type of character that’s always doing good and works hard all the time, he get frustrated here and there but isn’t much more. Helen Mirren plays Maria Altmann who is the old lady trying to get her painting back from the Austrian government. Mirren and Reynolds both have good on screen chemistry and are funny to watch during some of the more lighthearted scenes. Other actors such as Daniel Brühl, Katie Holmes and Charles Dance really needed more screen time as they seemed like they all had about 5 minutes in the film each, all with forgettable lines and moments.
The film is an interesting one when thinking about the issues at heart with it, such as returning what is lost when war crimes are committed. There’s also the matter of how cultures and people who are affected by the war go about reconciling in the future or how they struggle year’s later with the effects of war. There’s also the concept of how much this painting is worth and whether or not everyone in the film is entirely ethical or as righteous as they are portrayed about it all. Considering what happens in the end with the painting and where it ends up, it leaves the audience with a lot to talk about.
Overall this is a film you would go and see if you were really interested in the topics it covers as well as the case surrounding the Woman In Gold painting. Both Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren do a fine job acting in this film but there isn’t really much suspense at all really, particularly if you know how the court case turns out. With the lack of suspense and dramatic feel, it just feels like an average film that is probably better to just rent when it comes out rather than spend a lot of money on a trip to the cinema.
