[yasr_overall_rating]
Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.
“Woman in Gold” offers a unique look at the Holocaust and its survivors. It is the true story of Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), a well-to-do Austrian, and her decision to pursue what rightfully belongs to her, the portrait of her Aunt Adele. This begins by enlisting the humble, soft-spoken, and at times bumbling lawyer, Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds). Young Randy has his share of responsibilities, a wife, a new baby, and making an admirable effort to distance himself from his prestigious namesake in order to establish an identity of his own. As they begin their journey, Randy has little respect for the past, but he learns through his relationship with Maria exactly what the past was and how his own family suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime.
All is tied beautifully together in this film with flashbacks to the Holocaust and how this very affluent Jewish family lost everything. Young Maria (Tatiana Maslany) and Fritz (Max Irons) give haunting performances of the horrific experience it must have been to flee a Nazi-occupied country, leaving the ones you love behind. This essential part of the story, these flashbacks, allows us to understand Maria’s dilemma in wanting to reclaim what was stolen from her family. It is painful for her to revisit, yet she owes this much to her family.
Mirren is incredibly endearing with her outstanding performance and motherly tendencies toward Randy. Offering him cough drops and wiping his lapels during court, much to his disdain. But their bond is strong and I fell in love with them and their relationship. Her emotion is raw when she bravely tells the staunchly Austrian official that she will bring Adele to America, just as she had escaped to America when she was a young girl.
Reynolds’ performance is excellent. Executed to perfection as the mediocre lawyer who finds a passion he believes in and runs with it. I was cheering for these two! This was just a beautiful tale that had me choked up in the end, and I am prone to this, especially when, at the end, the actual photos of Maria and Randy were shown and the beautiful remnants of their efforts are listed.
All and all, this was an entertaining yet haunting film for me. I didn’t live during that time so any peek gives me pause as to how life must have been. How tragic. How horrific. How unnecessary. This movie was a reminder of the past lest we forget.
In select theaters now including the Angelika in Dallas
