A few times each year, there's no significant new film in theaters because studios don't want to compete with a major blockbuster (such as last week's "Avengers" movie) still going strong in its second week.
On these occasions, I get to go back and review a recent film I had missed.
And this week, boy, am I glad I did.
"Woman in Gold" is an entertaining, charming, even occasionally funny film with a compelling sense of history and justice and a surprising level of suspense. It's a film I thoroughly enjoyed, worked well for date night and will be shown to several of my (older) children for its educational value as well.
The film is based on the true story of Maria Altmann, the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family from Vienna whose art was stolen by Nazis after the Anschluss. Even long after the war ended, the stolen masterpieces remained on the walls of Austria's most celebrated museums. Specifically, the portrait of Altmann's aunt, known as "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" or "Woman in Gold," became a prized national treasure, heralded as the "Mona Lisa" of Austria.
The movie "Woman in Gold" chronicles Altmann's battle against the Austrian government – and the legal case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court – to have the paintings returned to her family.
Oscar-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren gives a stirring, delightful and complex performance as Altmann. She singlehandedly elevates the movie from decent to dazzling. And while Ryan Reynolds can't match her acting chops, he does certainly look and feel the part of the overmatched, "schoolboy" lawyer Altmann hired to get her paintings back.
And while I can't speak to the motives of the real Altmann and her attorney in their efforts to reclaim the paintings, in the movie, the reason is identified in one, clear line of dialogue: "People forget, you see, especially the young. And then … there's justice."
The movie plays strongly to this sense of doing what's right, regardless of the cost (to Altmann, to her attorney and to the nation of Austria). It also illustrates the reason we cannot forget the past, including both the Anschluss and the Holocaust, lest we be doomed to repeat it. "Woman in Gold" even goes so far as to suggest the sins of the Nazis are still committed today and challenges audiences to seek a new future free from this kind of injustice.
Hoity toity film critics will likely complain the morality of the movie isn't gray enough, that it's a little simplistic or one-sided in portraying Altmann's case as noble and just. Perhaps it's cliché, they may say. Perhaps it's been done before (I did notice some of the first-person flashback scenes felt like watching "Titanic" all over again).
Well, tough – it's a good movie anyway, and I enjoyed watching it.
It's a movie with obvious good guys fighting for justice against the odds. It's a movie about honoring the past. It's about forging a more hopeful future. It's beautiful. It's artful without being artsy. And despite some obvious emotional manipulation (he has to choose between being at the birth of his baby or arguing at the Supreme Court? OK, that's a little thick), it nonetheless plucks the heart strings, strikes a chord of virtue and lands a few notes of humor along the way.
The critics may not like it, but most of the audience of this column, I dare say, will. "Woman in Gold" is a movie worth catching in the theaters while you still can, especially while studios are waiting for "Avengers" to run its course.
Content advisory:
- "Woman in Gold," rated PG-13, contains 6 obscenities and profanities, including one "f" word and a joke about an Austrian with the last name "Grimshitz."
- The movie has almost no sexuality outside of some minor cleavage and a painter whose hand strays briefly as he adjusts the "posture" of a (clothed) female model.
- The film's flashbacks to post-Anschluss Austria include some scenes of bullying and violent behavior on the part of the Nazis and their sympathizers, including Jews being publicly ridiculed. There's also a chase scene, including some gunfire, as a pair of Jews run from their Nazi captors.
- The film's only religious or occult references are Nazi swastikas and a Star of David at a Jewish funeral.