Monday, May 4, 2015

Woman in Gold (2015)

Jack and I really liked this, based on the true story of a holocaust survivor who sued the Republic of Austria to get back the famous Gustav Klimt painting stolen from her family by the Nazis. Helen Mirren is wonderful as always as the lead and Ryan Reynolds continues to grow in his strongest dramatic role yet (lawyer Randol Schoenberg) after the mayhem of Ted, slapstick of The Change-Up and The Proposal, and posturing in the excellent Adventureland (Mirren was last blogged in The Hundred Foot Journey). Daniel Brühl (most recently in A Most Wanted Man) co-stars as their European ally, and I was happy to see Tatiana Maslany, the very talented star of the BBC-America series Orphan Black (in which she plays quite a few clones--each with different personalities, body language, and accents), as Mirren's character Maria Altmann as a young woman speaking German.

Director Simon Curtis (last blogged for My Week with Marilyn) directs from a script by actor and playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell, who adapted Altmann and Schoenberg's memoir and makes his screenwriting debut here.

Hans Zimmer (most recently scored Chappie) composed the soundtrack with Martin Phipps (new to me). Here's one song-- the album has not been released.

Once again the critics have it all wrong. Ignore their 53% on Rotten Tomatoes and instead heed the audiences' 86%...and us! See it on the big screen if possible.

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