Restoration

Plot synopsis:
The film concerns a small furniture-restoration business in downtown Tel Aviv, Malamud & Fidelman. As the film begins, one of the partners (Malamud, played by Rami Danon) has died, and bequeathed his share in the business not to his longtime partner Yaakov Fidelman (Sasson Gabai), but to Yaakov's son Noah Fidelman (Nevo Kimhi).
The aging Yaakov is a skilled craftsman, who loves his work and keeps exacting standards. However, he has little sense for financial issues, which had always been taken care of by his dead partner. The business is going down, demand for Yaakov's services is falling off and banks refuse to give him loans. Noah, who had refused to follow in his father's footsteps and became a successful lawyer, is pressing Yaakov to retire and sell off the workshop – which could bring a lucrative profit as the area is undergoing a real-estate boom.
Yaakov is on the verge of reluctantly giving in when a mysterious young man named Anton (Henry David) gets a job in the workshop, and becomes Yaakov's apprentice, exhibiting considerable aptitude for and skill in the work. Little is revealed of Anton's antecedents; he had broken off relations with his family, for unknown reasons, and hides when his brother comes by seeking him. Anton comes up with a way of saving the failing business, or at least giving it a breathing spell: a broken down 19th Century German Steinway piano, which Anton discovered among old junk in the workshop, can be repaired and sold for a considerable sum.
Anton – who is also a gifted pianist – throws himself into the repair job, so determined to succeed that he resorts to stealing people's wallets in the street to gain money needed to buy materials. In effect, he stakes a claim to being Yaakov Fidelman's true son and heir, the one who continues the old man's lifework which his biological son had cast aside. As work on the piano progresses, the frustrated Noah steals into the workshop, but cannot bring himself to smash the piano.
The stakes in this rivalry are raised higher when Anton starts an affair with Noah's wife, Hava (Sarah Adler) – a sensitive and artistic young woman who is neglected by her busy husband, and who is heavily pregnant with Noah's child, Yaakov's grandchild.
Eventually, it is Yaakov Fidelman who must make the crucial choice between Anton's piano project and Noah's real-estate deal – and in effect, which of them does he recognize as his true son.

Tags: historical

Review:
The only truly unfortunate aspect of the film was the casting of Meg Ryan...just Plumb Awful(as they say)in the role of Dr Merivil's asylum inmate lover....who was by the way, miraculously cured of her insanity by his physical attentions.
Robert Downey gives a highly respectable performance as Merivel (and has an excellent British accent), but Meg Ryan is totally mis-cast, seeming very lost in some scenes.
'Restoration' was filmed during 1994, and was delayed for release amid rumours of re-shooting scenes with Meg Ryan, and probable cold feet after the box-office difficulties with 'The Red Letter'.This movie has not been given the credits it truly deserves, and is an excellent illustration of Court life and marriage politics during the reign of Britain's sexiest Monarch!.
In many ways, 1600s England was a transitional time reflecting the growth of England toward a modern sensibility while still being hindered by the traditions and outlooks of the past, primarily the hold of Medieval thought which held to a strict hierarchical strata while discouraging and even destroying the pursuit of knowledge and truth.Robert Downey Jr. does a tremendous job as a character that appears to be a fore-runner of the coming Enlightenment.
However, through a serendipitous and at first fortuitous run-in with King Charles II, the Restoration monarch (played brilliantly by Sam Neill), Downey loses his way and becomes a willing pawn in the king's sexual chess games.
The only stipulation that is placed upon him: He cannot touch his own wife--she ultimately belongs to the King as one of his many mistresses.In this way, Charles II is still a monarch enacting a role that was first prescribed in the Middle Ages: that of the absolute ruler with absolute authority that can use his subjects for his own whims, and he can also discard those that are no longer useful.
Charles II continues the enterprises begun by Cromwell and becomes a transitional monarch who has aspects that reflect both the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment.In many ways, Restoration is about these two worlds, and how Downey lives in both of them, from the luxurious life of a nobleman to the humble physician working with Quakers in an insane asylum.
In an interesting scene, Downey enters a kind of laboratory in which knowledge, research, and discovery are are being supported by the king who presides over the work of many scholars.
Later, we learn that Downey is also an amateur astronomer, gazing at the stars in the heavens with a telescope.Through his adventures in and out of these worlds, Downey sees the light and dark of both and becomes something greater than he had before, particularly through an episode in which he falls in love with one of the patients (Meg Ryan) at the insane asylum.
While Meg Ryan's character as an insane Irish girl was perhaps a bit overwrought, I found little to fault in the movie.
The transition of Robert Downey's character was also wonderfully done - we watch him go from boyishness to maturity in a slow change throughout the film, it's not just randomly done because of one event, but of a series of events.
After watching this film, I felt my faith in humanity had been (somewhat) restored, and not for the squishy, feel-good reasons either.
Instead, I felt that filmmakers can often demonstrate truly wondrous, creative talents; Try not to think of all those sumptuous 18th Century European paintings that feature either the rich or the starving, while taking in the cinematic beauty of Hoffman's 'Restoration.'So what if Meg Ryan has a role in this one, I still enjoyed it.
Zannetti went on to 'architecturally' design the central, Rococo menace in "The Haunting" (1999).Downey Jr's performance (as a doctor) is Raphaelesque, a walking representation of the period in which this story takes place (the anguish and hope he must undergo and have is thespian splendor).
Robert Downey, Jr. stars as a physician at the beck and call of the royal court in 17th Century England, and serves as our guide through an overstuffed story that includes lunatics, fires and the plague.
The jaw-dropping production and costume design is alone worth sitting through the movie for.With Sam Neill as a king and Meg Ryan as one of the lunatics.Grade: A-.
I'm not sure we saw the same movie and I'm puzzled.This is a tremendously rich, emotional film, very true to Rose Tremain's novel, and just wonderful.The casting is divine, and I thought Meg Ryan was fine as Catherine.Charles II is my favorite English monarch and Sam Neill portrayed him just as I pictured him.Robert Downey was Marivel to a T, as was David Thewliss as Pierce.The costumes and scenery were magnificent -- from the palace to the countryside and back -- and those fabulous Spaniels running through the palace and environs was just how I'd pictured England's most enlightened monarch's place to be!How anyone can find this movie to be anything less than a gem is beyond me..
As the shallow court doctor, Robert Downey Jr's performance makes one cry for the habits that have kept him away from so many productions.
David Thewliss is also convincing as a Quaker doctor who helps lead Downey's character away from the excess of the royal court.Now, here's the inclusion part.
Meg Ryan plays a psychiatric patient that Downey's character seems to cure in a manner not recommended by most Colleges of Physicians.
A sweeping film about fate and redemption during one of England's most dynamic reigns, Restoration is worth getting as a DVD because it really does improve with more than one viewing..
I don't think this movie was marketed well, the notes on the case make it look like a silly bedroom farce, which, indeed, it is not.Robert Downey Jr is a revelation, as much as he was in Chaplin.Sam Neill makes Charles such a lovable scallywag that you can't disapprove of the randy King.
I don't even mind meg Ryan.This film is so beautiful to look at, but don't watch it with a rowdy crowd.
I really enjoyed this movie set in King Charles glorious days.
The scenery,acting and story were all great and Meg Ryan put on a passable Irish accent.I suppose that there will always be nit pickers like myself,and although Purcells great music was played throughout the movie,he would have only been five years old when these events took place.Still,I recommend this one and if you enjoy it try and also view'England my England'which is set during the same period..
Mainly a biography of a lustful doctor, "Robert Merivel ," (Robert Downey) who has his way in the king's palace for the first half of the film and then helps out the downtrodden in the second half, mainly "Katharine" (Meg Ryan).The GOOD - Fantastic set decoration (i.e. the lush king's palace) and costuming make this a visual treat.
Ian McKellen and Hugh Grant provide interesting support.The BAD - After 50-60 minutes, this movie simply gets too boring.
The rest of the cast is very good, Meg Ryan's hair is funky, straw like, and needs conditioning, thats a joke.
The main character is a delight, it's so easy to like him (I guess Robert Downey Jr has a very "likable" face anyway), and you are emotionally bound to him from his first appearance to the last fade out which is, in my humble opinion, what makes a good movie.
The post Cromwell revolution England is a place full of contrasting people and ideals, and the movie explores the differences between nobility and the ordinary men with the sad looking puritans and the ostensible royal doctor.
Robert Downey, Jr. was terrific as always in Restoration.When I give reviews on films or when I tell family or friends about films, I like to go into detail of why I liked each character, the writing, the actors' performance, etc...With "Restoration", I can't do that here.
Great sets and costumes, but despite a good cast, it doesn't really click completely.
This movie has a great deal going for it-beautiful sets and costumes, a fine cast (although Downey's performance is uneven and Neill is largely underused) and a decent story.
This could have been better than it was, but is worth watching, particularly if you like costuming and lavish sets.
- that become transformed into a whole; there are metaphysical conceits (all the play with the stars), especially the fundamental structure of the four elements - air, water, fire, earth, which play such a vital role in the plot.The title itself is a bookish pun, signifying not only the restoration of the Monarchy after eleven years, as the inter-titles tell us, of 'bleak Puritan rule'; but also the restoration of its hero's humanity, decency and maturity; the restoration of London after the Plague and the Great Fire of London.All of this is imported directly into the film, which is divided neatly in two, from the dazzling splendour of Charles II's court, and riverside aristocratic estates, to the austerity and misery of Quakers, medicine, madness, childbirth, death, plague, the Great Fire.
The sets quite literally swamp the story, from which it never recovers, and who can blame us when the characters are so unreal (a wonderfully camp Hugh Grant and moving Ian MacKellan excepted), while the buildings, the gardens, the vast halls, the statuary, the bric-a-brac, the drapery, the costumes, the colour seem so alive.Merivel claims he is sick of death and wants colour, and who can blame him?
Unfortunately, the film takes the opposite route and  follows Merivel into abstention via some very queasy morality verging not only on pro-life, but in dispensing with women, mothers and sex altogether, as well as suggesting that the King's caprice was actually a very sophisticated moral test.So the first half of the film is like wandering dazed through a very elaborate museum.
If sets and costumes were all it took to make a movie, "Restoration" would certainly be considered an all-time great.
And yet the stolid camerawork makes things feel rather slow."Restoration" also features the most bizarre casting of any English period drama I've ever seen.
Instead we have Sam Neill, who's clueless in the role of King Charles; you'll wonder, how exactly did this wooden, charmless man seduce all those women?
Robert Downey Jr. as the hero manages an amusingly off-beat performance, but the script puts him through such extremes of emotion in such short periods of time that he's forced to underplay.
I can't argue with its Academy Awards for costumes and art direction, but as a movie, "Restoration" is the equivalent of an expensive wig..
Robert Downey Jr. is a doctor to a king, who marries Meg to save her, but begins to fall in love with her.
The fact that their love story differs from most makes this movie even better.
But I will warn you of the nudity, Robert Downey Jr. and minor female characters are nude in certain parts of the movie.
Lavish sets and costumes; debauchery and intrigue set Restoration moving at a terrific pace and the film threatens to be a classic.
Sam Neill excels as the King; and Hugh Grant displays real acting talent as a manipulative court painter.
It's worth watching, if only for the first hour or so; but you will be left wondering what might have been had enough time and effort been given to character development, plot or history that is needed in order for it to become the historical epic that it trys to be.
This movie is visually stunning--the spectacular sets (the floating wedding scene), the sumptuous costumes.But it's much deeper than the glorious surface would suggest--it's not just a costume drama--the story is about someone and something--one man's life from selfishness to selflessness.Downey's acting is superb, he's always been a wonderful actor, and here he's both subtle and broad and always believable.
Meg Ryan is so different here from her normal cute roles that you might not even recognize her.The script, direction, acting, editing, and beautiful score combine to make this a rich, emotionally moving experience..
The greatest surprise of the film is Robert Donwey Jr. himself who pulls off a great performance with a very convincing British accent.
And unlike other reviewers I truly did not mind Meg Ryan in this role, in fact it was good to see her as something other than the ditsy leading lady in a rom-com and I was surprised to see her do a fair Irish accent.
Apart from the over the top (and yet brilliant) sets, this film is moderate in tone and pace - there are no action sequences aside from a bit of action through the fire scene and no over the top romance or drama - and this is what makes the film so enjoyable and realisticI highly recommend watching this Restoration to anyone that wants to be swept away to another period in history and to anyone who wants to see Robert Downey Jr's true acting talent..
This movie is visually enchanting replete with lavish costumes and is therefore not surprising to know that this movie had won 2 Oscars – Art direction & Costume Design.Restoration focuses on the gloomy aspects of the era life poverty, illness, medicine and the way of living during those times.
The story revolves around Robert Merivel, (Robert Downey Jr) who is a doctor during the reign of King Charles II (Sam Neil).
And Ian McKellan, that guy could act in a comic book movie and turn in a great performance (which he did in the X Men).
Robert Downey Jr. in a 17th century wig and dress was enough to make me shudder, but I couldn't believe a great actor like Sam Neill actually took a part in this movie.
Director Michael Hoffman presents us with a lush period piece of 1660's England during the reign of Charles II after the restoration of the monarchy.
Robert Downey Jr. plays a young doctor who is driven to find his calling through circumstances and women, and the king himself, who drive him.
Robert Downey and Meg Ryan could not have been poorer choices for the leads.
Restoration is the story of a doctor - Robert Merivel (Robert Downey Jr.) who finds himself living amid the chaos of the interregnum - the brief period during the mid 17th century when England did not have a monarch.
Her Irish accent is like the Quasimodo of accents - you're horrified, but you can't turn away.King Charles II (Sam Neill) and Merivel's chemistry here is hilarious.
They said it was a hugely disappointing role for Robert Downey, Jr. Although, this movie was not superb, it was at least decent.
Downey's Sir Robert is, of course, a man who chases after women, and when he falls in love with her, a spy (played by Hugh Grant) discovers it, reports it to the king, and Sir Robert is banished.
Spanning the reign of Charles II, the great fire, the plague, ad nauseum, the "restoration" refers to, not only the period, but the human condition.
Shot in England and Wales, and winning Academy Awards for Art Direction and Costumes, the script involves a promising young doctor, Jack Merivel (Downey), whose gifts attract the attention of the King.
The second half deals with Merivel's quest for redemption  not from the King, but from himself and God. It involves his daughter by the Meg Ryan character, and this is where the story changes from costume drama to social commentary.
Downey does a wonderful job displaying the naive, hormonally driven young doctor who, in itself, restores his identity throughout the film.
She dies giving birth and redemption follows upon good works before the Lord under his Quaker friend's name.The title reveals much more than if the movie were, Robert Downey Junior's Adventures in England.
This takes place during the reign of the great restoration king Charles II of England and Great Britain, a ruler whose life had been part of "Forever Amber" and later the lengthy cable continuing series "The Stuarts", a major part of the often filmed "Nell Gwynn", and as notorious a ladies man as his distant cousin of a century before, Henry VIII.
Sam Neill looks the part in the most commanding if ways, subtle in his nobility, yet flamboyant in his excesses.The era was a great time of change in England, and this story focuses on one particularly complex man.
Robert Downey Jr. proves once again his great versatility as a great doctor, hired for the king's court, who looses his gift for medicine from an unrequited love for Polly Walker, part of an arranged marriage set up by the king.
Downey is dismissed, goes off to treat those suffering from a plague, falls in love once more (with peasant girl Meg Ryan) and proves his strength as a doctor, even under the most tragic circumstances of his own life.
However, the film itself has been relatively forgotten.The plot: In 1663 England, young Dr. Robert Merivel (Robert Downey, Jr.) works alongside his colleague and friend, Dr. John Pearce (David Thewlis), in an overcrowded, underfunded, and run-down London hospital.
Yet, a chance encounter with the restored king, Charles II (Sam Neil), leads to Merivel being swept away to that Merry Monarch's court where seemingly all of his dreams of having luxurious, decadent life free from stress and suffering come true.
His courage and skill as a physician is tested and proved by the 1665 Great Plague of London and once again captures the attention of Charles II...."Restoration" works as a film because of the terrific performance of Robert Downey, Jr. who brilliantly and believably portrays Merivel's rather stunning transformation from boy to man.
However, Downey's rather worn-down appearance actually fits Merivel's dissolute character very well.He's joined by a terrific Sam Neill as Charles II.
One he saves there is Meg Ryan as Katharine, thought my most to be insane but she just had deep fears motivating her strange behavior.This is an old movie, Downey Jr. was not even 30 yet when it was filmed.