Review: Woman in Gold
It does not necessarily follow that a film will suffer if one of its principal players is miscast. Nor does it follow that a film cannot survive a complicated subject being drained of all its shadings. One could reasonably argue that director Simon Curtis and debuting screenwriter Alexi Kaye Campbell have built a structurally sound work out of the remarkably true story of Austrian-Jewish Holocaust refugee Maria Altmann's attempts to recover the titular painting by Gustav Klimt decades after it had been stolen from her family by the Nazis. Woman in Gold is well-intentioned, determinedly on the right side of history, and occasionally engaging, but it is also a deeply problematic film that undermines instead of course-corrects.
Maria is played by Helen Mirren, which is the film's salvation and detriment. Mirren's default gear is somewhere between perfection and near-perfection, and her characterisation is commanding and faultless. When Maria is first introduced, she is speaking at her sister's funeral and Mirren immediately conveys the pride and resilience that define Maria. Maria has discovered several documents in her sister's possession, documents concerning several Klimt painting and other valuables taken by the Nazis from their family home. One Klimt painting, depicting a woman ornately decorated with gold leaf, is of special significance to Maria for the woman in the painting was her beloved aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, who had lived with the Altmanns and was practically a second mother to Maria. Now hanging in Vienna's Belvedere Palace since WWII, the work has become part of Austria's identity and its subject regarded as the country's "Mona Lisa."
Maria, however, is more concerned with personal rather than national identity. She wishes to reclaim the painting to provide justice for her family and to keep alive the memory of her aunt, whose identity was erased when the painting was taken into the Belvedere. Helping her in her crusade is one Randy Schoenberg, a struggling young lawyer who is first in it for the money, but soon finds himself reconnecting to his own roots (his family was also persecuted by the Nazis). Schoenberg is played by Ryan Reynolds which, in and of itself, is not the issue. The problem is he is called upon to act with Mirren, and the actor is simply not up to the task. Reynolds has always struggled with his performances slipping into blandness. He can be capable of delivering a fine performance - see Buried and The Voices - but he fails to do so in Woman in Gold.
Putting aside the inherent unbelievability of Reynolds as a Jewish man, his character's narrative arc is rendered with very little conviction. The filmmakers do a disservice to their own story by shifting the focus in the second half of the film to Randy's dogged refusal to buckle under all the bureaucratic obstacles thrown their way. There were early indications that Woman in Gold would follow the Rocky template, but why deviate from the most compelling underdog to follow a dead ender?
It isn't just Reynolds who fails to elevate his game. The filmmakers fumble as well, executing the material with a heavy-handedness and all but rigging the story to ensure appropriate audience reaction. One can't help but feel that Mirren's briskness masks a certain impatience at having to work with those who cannot keep up with her.
Woman in Gold
Directed by: Simon Curtis
Written by: Alexi Kaye Campbell
Starring: Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl, Katie Holmes, Tatiana Maslany, Max Irons, Charles Dance, Elizabeth McGovern, Jonathan Pryce, Antje Traue, Frances Fisher
