Woman In Gold cast- a critique by Kermode and Mayo

Full-text transcript of the Woman in Gold film review:

[00:00:00] Let’s talk about women and gold.

[00:00:02] Yes, why don’t we as a kind of a change of peace, because then we’ll get hot tub time machine, two liter Women and Gold is the new film from Simon Curtis, who is the director of My Week with Marilyn. And he also did a long time ago. I was horrified. How long ago this was 1999. The TV version of David Copperfield with Daniel Radcliffe, which was just completely terrific. It was I think it was stretched over four nights and it was a kind of a big Christmas costume. Drama spectaculars, very, very well directed. So Simon cuts his involvement in this is interesting, but it is less important than the involvement of Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the Weinstein Company, of course, these incredibly shrewd players in the American awards circuit, sort of my game. And they will kind of spot trends in films that are doing well and, you know, play well with audiences and get nominated for awards and commission more films like that. Because, you know, they’re like blackjack players. You know, they feel that the table is hot and they want to keep playing no women. And gold is very, very, very like a film called Filumena.

[00:01:02] I was that’s why I thought this morning it was Philomena or it was the love child of the Queen and the Thomas Crown Affair.

[00:01:08] It’s just that’s too clever. That’s giving it too much credit is just Philomena Dunne. Again, you’ve got this is a very middlebrow drama with a combination of an older woman and a younger man, platonic odd couple. It’s a true story. It’s based on historical injustice being set right on this globe trotting adventure. Now, the historical injustice involves a famous painting by an artist called Gustav Klimt. The painting is a portrait of Adele Bloch bar. And I mean, it’s known as the Women and Gold because she’s kind of swathed in gold leaf. And in the opening scene, we see this painting being painted. That painting was found at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War and ended up on the wall of Art Museum in Vienna. And Helen Mirren, who plays the descendant of the lady who pose for the painting, wants to get it back. And here she is enlisting the help of Ryan Reynolds, lawyer.

[00:01:51] My aunt Adele, my uncle, commissioned Gustav Klimt to paint her. It’s quite a painting. It’s magnificent. She was taken off the walls of our home by the Nazis, and since then she’s been hanging in the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna and now you’d like to be reunited. Wouldn’t that be lovely? Make you a rich woman? I’m sure you think that’s what this is about. No, I have to do what I can to keep these memories alive because people forget, you see. Especially the young. And then, of course, there’s Justice

[00:02:45] Helen Mirren there. There we are now. So this is you can see this Philomena set up. And although it takes so many boxes, as we said, you know, it is this kind of drama, odd couple, blah, blah, blah. It doesn’t work in many ways that Philomena does work because, Philomena, you had that fantastic thing of the false kindness of the Catholic Church in Ireland where they were trying to, you know, they thought they were being helpful, but not you had that really interesting performance from Steve Coogan, like nothing that he’s done in Judi Dench. We know you know, what CDH can do, but she’s funny and she’s you know, she’s kind of on peak form there. And also what Philomena did, which I completely love, is that it never gave either character the upper hand over the other for too long. You know, Steve Coogan was that played the sceptic, the Doti and Judi Dench played this kind of woman of faith. And it didn’t ever say, you know, one of these credos is the right way to go. It kind of let that woman in gold just doesn’t do that at all. The Austrians who are trying to protect the painting, I mean, effectively, really quite bad taste, I thought, portrayed as the descendants of the Nazis, you know, kind of strutting around.

[00:03:42] Revell keeps this painting at all costs, all costs, and they don’t entertain any possibility that it should perhaps go back to her. But at the same token, Helen Burns character doesn’t entertain the idea that, you know, maybe this painting kind of belongs to the public and it should be seen. You know, she obviously says she doesn’t just want it for money. She wants it to set this historical injustice. Right. But there’s never a sense in which her own beliefs are being challenged. Or Ryan Reynolds, by the way, his lawyer character has this pregnant wife played by Katie Holmes, who kind of sits at home and is happy to see him give up his hot shot lawyers job in order to pursue this. And then, you know, when he’s feeling down, say no, you know, go for it. We’ve got a mortgage. We’ve got another kid on the way. But never mind that, you know, you can save this woman’s painting and it just doesn’t ring true. You know, it’s beige, beige,

[00:04:21] Even with you. Comparisons to Philharmonie as well, like even the car scenes, you know, those car scenes in Philomena between Steve Coogan and on the airplane as well when they’re traveling together. Those moments are so special within that film and they’ve even lifted that into this film as well. You know, those kind of travellin scenes when they’re when they’re on the way to the airport and she wants to get there early so she can do some jeoffrey shopping and things like, yeah,

[00:04:42] It’s very, very odd how much the two films match up. But then, you know, it’s one of these cases where on paper, very similar on the screen, totally different.