Movie Review: Woman in Gold (+trailer)

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.

All she has left of her homeland is her memories.

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.

Learning that the painting is on display in Vienna, Maria seeks the help of young lawyer Randol Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) to try to get it back.

Schoenberg's own history traces back to Austria and once hooked by the prospect of regaining the painting, he won't be stopped.

But getting Woman in Gold back means taking on the Austrian Government and it's not going to be an easy fight.

We follow as this unusual pair tackle some of their own demons and memories from Austria.

Issues of Nazism, the Holocaust, collaboration and restitution raise their head in a country not sure whether it can confront its past.

This is a wonderful story of justice served and deserved and gives us a small inkling of the impact of Nazism and the Holocaust.

Although Mirren is not entirely convincing as a Jewish Austrian, Reynolds tackles his serious dramatic role with some aplomb.

Woman in Gold (M)
120 minutes
Rating: 3/5 stars