First Hit: Although a bit methodic it was an interesting story and one deserving light.
The Nazis took private property as their own during their invasion of Austria. In the case of this story they stole a famous Klimt painting called “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” or the “Woman in Gold” from Maria Altman’s (Helen Mirren) childhood home.
The subject of this painting was Maria’s aunt Adele who lived with them in her family’s Austrian home. Maria fled to the United States and her family was either killed by the Germans in a camp or died on their own. She wants “what is rightfully” hers. She hires an old family friend’s son Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) who is a lawyer whose family also suffered under the Nazi’s rule in Austria.
Working together they end up suing the Austrian government for rightful ownership of the paintings the Nazi’s took from her Austrian home. It seemed that the aim of telling of this story was to do this through emotional righteous digging, guilt, and the wrongness of the Nazi’s and not on the depth of the characters. Not that this way of telling the story wasn’t good however, it skimped on what might have been a more amazing story.
Mirren was strong and was effective enough, although I found her back and forth on the willingness to pursue this case to be oddly off-putting. Reynolds was bland, and it may have been because whom he was portraying might have been meek but it would have been better if Reynolds mined the character further. Katie Holmes had a minor role as Reynolds wife and her part, like the film, didn't fully engage me. Alexi Kaye Campbell wrote this from stories by the real life Altman and Schoenberg. It is a wonderful story that could have used more depth. Simon Curtis did a good job of directing what was given to him.
Overall: This was a satisfying story that could have been deeper.