Quite often, the phrase "remarkable true story" unfolds as a curse, not a blessing, when it's Hollywood's turn to offer its rendition. As is usually the case with such stories, a well-received book has already been published, so now the movie has the daunting task of at least returning serve, let alone trying to one-up its predecessor in print.
Such is the case with Woman in Gold, for which better is not the result, to put it mildly. The book that preceded the film, The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer is a mesmerizing read brimming with rich detail that critics all over the world have anointed with we-really-really-like-it reviews. (Disclosure: Its author, Anne-Marie O'Connor, is a friend and former colleague of mine.)
The film is not based on O'Connor's book, though both deal with the same "remarkable true story." Sixty years after she and her husband fled Vienna, Maria Altmann (played by Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren) seeks to retrieve family possessions seized by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Those possessions include a jewel valued far more highly than any other plundered artifact: Klimt's portrait of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer. It's a stunning work of art and one deeply prized by the Austrians, who, in the movie, appear almost Nazilike in their craven zeal to cling to the portrait that hangs proudly in a Viennese museum.
Altmann hires an eager but inexperienced lawyer, Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), and together, at times tussling with one another to the point of sabotaging their alliance, they wage a battle fought on the artistic front lines of Vienna and even in the U.S. Supreme Court, whose favorable ruling accelerates their claims against the Austrians.
Here's the problem: While the story is truly one of a kind, the film often feels like a TV movie of the week, even one of those treacly Hallmark productions. Mirren is well-suited to the inspirational role of Altmann, but Reynolds, terrific in such romantic comedies as Definitely, Maybe, seems oddly miscast.
The film relies heavily on flashback as a narrative tool. Some of the time, its cinematic journeys back in time work well, but at other points, not at all.
The movie does maintain your interest, because the story is quite unlike any you've ever heard before, but to use a cliché that, sadly, fits this as well as any: Read the book.
By Michael Granberry. Follow him on Twitter at @mgranberry.
Woman in Gold (C)
Directed by Simon Curtis. PG-13 (some thematic elements and brief strong language). 110 mins. Opening at the Angelika Dallas today; expands Friday to Angelika Plano, Cinemark Legacy and AMC NorthPark, Village on the Park and Parks at Arlington.
