Woman in Gold. Released:
April 2015. Runtime: 109 mins. Rated: PG-13 for some thematic elements and
brief strong language.
Woman in Gold is a
film about the important topics of art and law, but ultimately it is about the
even more profound topics of family and justice.
In Los Angeles in 1998, Maria Altmann, an elderly Jewish
widow (played by Helen Mirren), who lives in a modest bungalow and runs a small
dress shop, contacts Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), a struggling young
attorney with a growing family. Maria explains that she and her husband had
fled Vienna for America 60 years before as the Nazis consolidated their rule
over Austria.
Maria's family—a warm and loving, wealthy and cultured
one—was largely wiped out by the Nazis and their property, including precious
artworks, was seized. Maria asks Randy to help her in an effort to recover
Gustav Klimt's breathtakingly beautiful and brilliant portrait of her beloved
aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer. The painting, often referred to as the “Woman in
Gold,” Maria points out somewhat angrily, now hangs in a state museum in Vienna
and is considered the “Mona Lisa” of Austria.
Randy is inexperienced in art restitution litigation, but he
is the grandson of noted composer Arno;ld Schoenberg, also a Jewish refugee
from Vienna who settled in Los Angeles, so Randy agrees to take up Maria's
cause. The movie depicts the grueling legal struggles of the two (and some
extra-judicial activities that help their research) in both Austria and
America—including an appearance before the Supreme Court of the United
States—as they attempt to recover Klimt's masterpiece for Maria, who sees the
restitution as an act of justice for what happened to her family.
Flashbacks of Maria's wonderful family life—full of
affection, mutual respect and involvement in the arts—in the 1920s and 1930s
are seamlessly integrated by director Simon Curtis into the ongoing story of
the restitution litigation. Tatiana Maslany gives a “spot on” performance as
the younger Maria. The depiction of the destruction of the Bloch-Bauer way of
life by the Nazis makes for a wrenching experience, and the escape of Maria and
her husband from Vienna is an exciting and suspenseful sequence.
The growing respect and affection between the sometimes
abrasive Maria and the sometimes hesitant Randy are interestingly depicted.
There are also brief glimpses of Randy's own loving family life. Katie Holmes
as his wife is appealing in a small role.
Helen Mirren is an actress in her “golden years,” who
usually provides performances of a “golden quality.” This movie is no
exception. Though hardly at the creative level of Klimt's masterpiece, Woman in Gold is a meritorious work of
cinematic art and well worth a trip to the theatre for a viewing.
“Footnote” to the
film: It is believed that the diamond necklace worn by Adele Bloch-Bauer in
Klimt's painting ended up being worn by the wife of Hermann Goering, Hitler's
crony and head of the Luftwaffe.
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