an uninspired hack job with an industrially designed wrapping can appeal to the lowest common denominator

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2015)

The real story itself has every aspect to be an uplifting material for a big screen adaptation, the Republic of Austria v. Altmann case, the righteous Jewish octogenarian Maria Altmann (Mirren) against the acquisitive Austrian government machinery, for the right of Gustav Klimt's $135 million worth painting Woman in Gold, where Maria's aunt Adele (Traue) is the said woman, and as a refugee fled from her homeland under the persecution of Nazis half a century ago, Maria has every right to get what belongs to her family and at the same time, to make peace with the mixed feeling towards her native land.
But when $135 million is at stake, the story itself cannot dodge a cynic suspicion of how lofty the cause is, as Maria's lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Reynolds), a fellow Austrian descendant, the grandson of the well-known composer Arnold Schoenberg, ruefully admits in the middle section of the movie to his wife Pam (Holmes), he takes on the case for the sake of money, only later he becomes a more persistent driving force for the case when his personal connection with the cause being vicariously activated through this tough journey. But for Maria, screenwriter Alexi Kaye Campbell doesn't budge an inch on her integrity, although the aftermath is that the painting is geographically relocated from a museum in Vienna to another museum in New York City, while Maria earns a ginormous fortune by selling it, instead of keeping it as a personal treasure. No one should blame her since if that windfall befalls on any of us, we will most likely make the same decision under the circumstance, but a tangy odour of whitewash is frustrating and bothersome as a default blemish for the hagiography genre, not to mention a self-boosting chauvinism does't help either.
Overtly this film resembles another Dame star vehicle PHILOMENA (2013), both fare quite healthy in the box office, which means this sub-genre does have its potential ticket-buyers, but as a Weinstein project, I doubt WOMAN IN GOLD will have any weighty influence on the Oscar race like the Dench-Coogan pic. First of all, the odd pair of Mirren and Reynolds doesn't register a tangible bond with humour and warmth which actually is so adroitly exerted by Dench and Coogan. Dame Mirren shines in a dignified impression which has no fault to pick albeit the character itself is flatter than we imagined. Reynolds acts up in several emotion-emancipating scenes, but overall, too hammy to take it in. Also, PHILOMENA is a more personal rite-of-passage of finding forgiveness in the most atrocious activity can ever incur on oneself, while WOMEN IN GOLD is more or less bordering on an ostentatious smash which panders to the audience stateside.
One surprising discovery is Tatiana Maslany, who plays the young Maria, and the star of the cult show ORPHAN BLACK. She is the saving grace in my opinion and authentically a leading lady material, also Antje Traue is a stunner in this generically mass-catering flick, director Simon Curtis' follow-up of his overvalued Oscar-player MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (2011) is acceptably on a par with his predecessor, it can woo you instantly on the garish face value, but afterwards, it is just an uninspired hack job with an industrially designed wrapping can appeal to the lowest common denominator.