Movie review - Woman in Gold

The title of this stunning movie refers to a famous painting:  Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (better known as The Woman in Gold) is a 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt. The first of two portraits Klimt painted of Bloch-Bauer, it has been referred to as the final and most fully representative work of his golden phase.

Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881–1925) was a refined art-loving Viennese woman, a patron and close friend of Gustav Klimt


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I#/media/File:Gustav_Klimt_046.jpg

The painting was among the thousands of valuable works of art stolen from Jewish families by the Nazis, and the movie details the true story of Maria Altmann's struggle to regain possession of the painting.  The subject of the painting was Altmann's aunt, and Altman was present when Hitler's Nazis looted the artwork from the family home in Vienna.

The picture below shows the real-life Maria Altmann standing in front of the painting:

Helen Mirren gives yet another stunning performance as Maria Altmann, who, after the funeral of her sister discovers letters and papers in her sister's effects that prompt her to begin her journey to recover the painting.

Mirren is one of those rare actors and actresses who actually "become" the role they're portraying.  Meryl Streep is another such actress.  For example, when you watch a Tom Cruise movie, you're always very much aware that you're watching Tom Cruise at work.  When you watch movies with actresses like Mirren and Streep in them the actresses become the character.  They somehow have the ability to make you forget that you're watching someone plying a role.  Mirren was totally convincing as an aging, machine gun toting spy in Reds, and she is totally convincing in this film, as well.

Ryan Reynolds portrays the young lawyer who helped Maria Altmann recover her family property, and he showed in this film that he can be so much more than the sexy pretty boy he played in Green Lantern.

During their attempts to recover the painting, the story of Altmann's family, and her escape from Nazi-occupied Austria is told in a series of flashbacks, and we are reminded yet again of man's inhumanity to man.

Maria Altmann began her fight to recover the painting when she was 82 years old, and she died in 2011 at the age of 94.  The legal battle lasted for some eight years.

At the risk of being repetitious, I will say it again, this was a stunning film.  And a moving one.

Mirren and Reynolds, as they appeared in the film.  Reynolds looks okay in a shirt and tie, I guess, but frankly, I preferred him in that sexy Green Lantern outfit!!

Helen Mirren, in her role as Maria Altmann standing in front of her aunt's portrait.