Review of The Best Offer (2013) by Amy A — 15 Jul 2016

Only a cold heart cannot warm to Virgil Oldman, a lonely elderly man who eats dinner alone on his birthday, even after learning that he is a fraud and a swindler. Oldman does not reveal that some of the paintings he analyzes are masterpieces. He does this so he, with the aid of his friend Billy (Donald Sutherland) can later buy them at a lower price. He keeps his masterpieces of womens' faces locked away in a room, where he, during his lonely moments, looks at but doesn't touch. Oldman is filthy rich, but still, he cannot live life in the real world, the same way he is not able to love a real woman. He loves canvas, not flesh. He can't even TOUCH flesh; he can't touch anything with his bare hands. He wears gloves and looks at the world alone, through transparent canvas.

The cast was well-selected, except for Claire. Sylvia Hoeks was too "Hollywood." A better choice was to have cast a more seemingly innocent woman, one who was more "girl-like" than seductive.

SPOILER ALERT. Please do not read any further if you do no wish to have the ending revealed and questioned.

The ending was as open-ended as a drunk's beer can. At the last scene, why did Oldman visit the NIGHT AND DAY café? It was the only place Claire felt loved in the past. Did he go there because he couldn't let his relationship go and hoped to see her again, or was it for revenge?

Oldman recollects Claire saying, "No matter what happens to us, know that I loved you.".

He also remembers saying that every forgery, every fake, leaves its real mark and can be found. So when Oldman tells the waiter, "I'm waiting for someone" in the last scene, what exactly did he mean?

How shocking to learn that the creepy savant dwarf was the real Claire! She rented out her Villa across the street, and Billy, Robert (the young guy who fixed the gears) and the groundskeeper were all in on this master plot to destroy Virgil and to rob him of his fortune. But by doing so, did they not give him a fortune... the ability to love? While Billy's motive is apparent, Robert's is not. Billy was an artist and felt undervalued by Oldman. Why did Robert cruelly destroy Virgil? There were easier ways to rob him, if money was all he was after.

One huge question remains... Was Virgil at the Mental Institution BEFORE or AFTER his visit to the NIGHT AND DAY café in Prague? Did he have a mental breakdown right after being conned, and then pull himself together? Or was the whole story him being in the institution reflecting on past events?