Mirren is headed the way of Maggie Smith

Rating: 6/10 (11 April 2015)

This Mirren vehicle was a crowd pleasing time-passer not overly concerned with historical accuracy when compared to lavish "production values" that always make the filmmaker and studio much more money, as they know viewers will always choose entertainment value over factual history(so booooring!). Everyone know what "dumbed down" means? Also, Mirren is getting typecast in her recent "queenly" roles just as Maggie Smith has been firmly typecast in her old lady, snipey zinger slinger-roles of late in Downton and Marigold Hotel. A profitable trend for both of them no doubt, but it only adds to their bank accounts, not to their list of great roles.
Lovely and stately Vienna, one of the world's greatest cities, was at its stunning best here, along with its many dramatically regal rooms that were used for virtually every scene filmed there. The story is of of a Mrs. Altmann, now a clothes retailer resident of L.A., but late of a wealthy Viennese, Jewish family, many of whom where killed later in WWII concentration camps, and how she escaped Nazi rule as her family's treasured art did not. All were stolen by the Nazis and reside in a Vienna museum that will not let them be reclaimed by the original owners.
Getting that art returned to her was her life's passion and she almost never gave up that pursuit, and did need tremendous support along the way from her attorney to achieve it. The Altmann family's famous, Woman in Gold painting was the center of this eponymous story's attention due to its great artistic merit and vast monetary value. (Why and how there should EVER be any question at all about the righteous retrieval of those stolen paintings back to their legal owners is well beyond my understanding and conscience).
The often humorous but sometimes harsh interplay between Mrs. Altmann and her young attorney, who zealously worked his backside off to get for her the fair and legal return of her treasures against the absolute denial of that wish by the museum's Nazi-like officer, was the story's main "grab".
The story was not always right on point but it always interesting, most always engaging, with the end result mostly justifying our time in watching it. Now, go read the actual history online to know the entire story, and even though it has more or less the same ending as the movie does, it is well worth anyone's time who is as interested in the factual events of important global history as in what movies do with it to entertain us. Monument's Men is another one even more interesting...the real story, not so much the movie.