Mirren anchors powerful Woman in Gold
FILM | Chuck Koplinski
In 1999, Maria Altmann filed suit against the Austrian government in an effort to regain ownership of five paintings done by Gustav Klimt that once belonged to her family but had been stolen by the Nazis and housed in that country’s museums. It was but the first step of a long, arduous process that would take her and her attorney E. Randol Schoenberg from Los Angeles, where they lived, to Austria time and again, hacking through tangles of red tape along the way before finally being able to bring suit in the United States, which would eventually enable to them to argue the case in front of the Supreme Court.
Simon Curtis’ Woman in Gold is a chronicle of Altmann’s case and succeeds in accomplishing something most films dealing with the Holocaust fail to do, namely showing how the Nazi’s crimes resonate to this day, their atrocities still having a profound impact on families and nations long after their power has waned.
Curtis does this by effectively folding flashbacks in the film, showing us the trials Maria’s family went through as well as allowing us to get to know her Aunt Adele (Antje Traue), who served as the model for one of Klimt’s most famous works. We see a household full of life and love crushed by the Nazi occupation, an event that dooms Maria’s family and forces her and her husband to flee, an event documented in an incredibly tense and well-done action sequence. As these memories fade on screen, Curtis segues to scenes involving today’s Austrian art officials who would deny her claim on the paintings they possess, making the connection clear that their complicity makes them no better than the Nazis who stole them.
As Altmann, Helen Mirren brings the sort of gravitas necessary for this role as well as a sense of humanity that helps ground the film. The woman is no fool and quite strong, yet the wounds from being separated from her family and knowing they were slaughtered by the Nazis have yet to heal, and she knows that in pursuing this matter it will only drudge up these painful memories. It’s during these scenes that Mirren excels, expressing Altmann’s pain in a way that goes straight to your heart. Unfortunately, Ryan Reynolds as Schoenberg is woefully miscast, though the actor does his best to pull it off. His usual smugness is absent but he’s far too young and inexperienced in films of this sort. He fails to give the role the heft it requires though there’s no doubt he’s sincere in his portrayal.
Be that as it may, Reynolds does succeed in effectively conveying what’s at the heart of the movie during the climactic scene that occurs before three arbitrators who will decide the fate of the five Klimts. Schoenberg points out that what is truly at stake is Austria’s identity, and that in returning the paintings to Altmann they will be distancing themselves from the long shadow of history’s past and taking steps towards reclaiming who they truly are as a people and country. It’s a moment that’s effectively underplayed and serves as a powerful reminder that while “the evil that men do lives after them,” it’s never too late face up to these sins and render justice where it is due.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at [email protected].
