Why all the criticism?

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2015)

I fail to understand the criticism levelled at this worthy legal drama, particularly Peter Bradshaw's scathing review for The Guardian newspaper.
Helen Mirren again turns in another good performance although the real surprise is Ryan Reynolds turn as her naïve but well meaning lawyer, in over his head (just as Matt Damon was in 1997's The Rainmaker) against the state of Austria.
That this is based on a true story seems to have been overlooked by the critics. The concept that Mirren's character was trying to retrieve a famous piece of art, a painting of her aunt, that was stolen by the Nazi's and ended up in a Viennese museum resonates as just a small piece of the injustices dealt to the Jews. That the museum refuses to hand it over by trying every excuse possible resulting in a David vs Goliath showdown and the animosity that gets built up just adds to the flavour.
Yes, maybe the story has been oversimplified for the purposes of the film, and that for the sake of the story 2 years is very conveniently squashed down into a few minutes, but this is still a decent legal drama with a human interest story (told partly in flashback). I certainly enjoyed the film and so did the audience.
Perhaps the critics didn't like it because it lacked any car chases, is fairly pedestrian in its pacing or that it demonises at least some of the Austrian people, for both being complicit in pre-war anti Semitism and the lack of acknowledgement to her plight. I cannot argue with these points but then again it isn't trying to be Schindlers List either. It was probably no coincidence that the vast majority of the audience was an older audience but there should always be a place in cinema for human interest stories too. This is a film about one woman's experience of what the Nazi's did to her, her family, her friends and her attempts to at least try and redress some of the injustices dealt to her. Maybe it won't win any Oscars but I would certainly recommend it for those who like old an fashioned drama based on a true story.