Review of Woman in Gold (2015) by Christa R — 04 Apr 2015

"Woman in Gold" is a legal drama about an Austrian native (Helen Mirren) who, with the help of her attorney friend (Ryan Reynolds), is suing the Austrian government to recover several priceless paintings that were stolen from her Jewish family during the Holocaust by the Third Reich.

At first, it appears the court costs will be too overwhelming, but Reynolds finds a loophole in the law to establish personal jurisdiction in the United States for Mirren's case. The case is litigated to the U.

S. Supreme Court and inevitably arbitration back in Vienna. Mirren and Reynolds show resilience as strong-willed protagonists against a legal process that seeks to block them at every turn. I did like this film for the most part.

I thought Reynolds did fine acting, and Mirren is charming as always. The film is heavy-handed and executes as such. I found some of the subject matter to be pro-Ally propaganda. Sure, the Nazis confiscated a lot of art and sought to erase the Jewish people from history, but the Allies stole an equal number of art from the German citizens, and like other anti-Nazi films, this one is told through the lens of the victors.

There is also some legal procedures that Reynolds doesn't follow well, but I will forgive that for cinematic license. This film is very captivating and poignant overall, and would have been great had the director not swept it with a heavy hand and had the subject matter been less derivative ------------------------------------------------------------------------ B.