movies: woman in gold

woman in gold - justice is priceless
Woman in Gold is the dramatisation of Maria Altmann's quest to return the world famous painting stolen from her family during the Nazi occupation of Austria.

As the older version of Altmann, Helen Mirren is a powerhouse... I mean she's generally excellent in everything she does, but she's especially good as an ordinary woman, in an extraordinary situation.

And Ryan Reynolds manages to definitely hold his own as Randy Schoenberg, the lawyer who takes on the Austrian government with her. In fact, this is possibly the best performance I've seen from Reynolds.

The story is split between the present day (well, the present day of the last 1990's) and Maria's experiences before and during the war.

Tatiana Maslany is fantastic as the younger Maria in those sequences.

In fact, with the possibly exception of Katie Holmes's somewhat monochromatic performance as Schoenberg's wife, and some slightly questionable accent work from Charles Dance, all of the performances are incredibly strong.

It's not a big movie or a showy movie, but it is definitely a movie worth watching.

yani's rating: 4 stolen artworks out of 5

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