Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, in a scene from Woman in Gold.
Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, in a scene from Woman in Gold.
Walking back in history, through the lives of real people, generally makes for fantastic viewing.
You simply can't beat the realism a true story brings to the big screen.
And a contemporary story such as Woman in Gold, featuring events between World War II and the end of the century,would be hard to believe if it wasn't true.
Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren) is an octogenarian Jewish refugee getting on with her life in Los Angeles after fleeing Austria as a young woman as the Nazis took hold.
When her sister dies, Altmann becomes aware via some documents of a family painting that was stolen by the Nazis.
Woman in Gold, painted by famous Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, was a portrait of Maria's favourite aunt Adele and hung proudly in their house in Vienna until the Nazis moved into the city, arresting Jews and stealing their belongings.
Maria and her husband managed to flee the country and start a new life in the United States.
