Helen Mirren delivers a dignified and scrupulous performance as Maria Altmann, an elderly Jewish woman who starts her journey to retrieve family possessions seized by the Nazis, among them Klimt's famous painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
Equally commanding is Ryan Reynolds, an inexperienced but plucky young lawyer who teams up with her in a major battle that takes them all the way to the heart of the Austrian establishment and the US Supreme Court, and forces her to confront difficult truths about the past along the way.
If there's one reason to watch the film it's for the truthful synergy between Mirren and Reynolds, showing how beguiling innocence and ferocious recollections clash head on to pave the way for a brighter, and more hopeful future.
It is skilfully directed by Simon Curtis, who made a great impact with his debut film My Week With Marilyn, who brings first-time screenwriter and award-winning playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell's luminous story to life.
Curtis' passion was ignited when he watched the BBC documentary Stealing Klimt, recounting the tale of the painting, Altmann's family and her battle to reclaim the paintings that had once hung in her childhood home, and featured extensive interviews with Altmann in particular, as well as Randol Schoenberg and Hubertus Czernin, the two men most instrumental in helping her to triumph eventually.
For many reasons, Curtis found himself deeply affected by Maria Altmann's story.
"It spoke to so many things that interest me in the way that it bolted the Second World War and the Holocaust to contemporary America. To me, the painting and Maria Altmann seemed to be emblematic of the entire 20th century, both originating in Vienna in its golden age at the beginning of the century and both ending in the United States at the end of the American century."
Campbell's mission was to make the story intellectually coherent and emotionally involving, while not allowing the intricate procedural slog of Altmann's restitution case to overwhelm the film's emotional heartbeat. While Maria Altmann passed away in 2011, Schoenberg was alive, well and present throughout the development phase, keenly reading each draft of the script.
For Mirren, Altmann's story was a new discovery. "Stories like this that come out of real life have extra piquancy and emotional content because you know that it was true," she remarks. "It's that classic story of the weak versus the strong and when the weak win out over the strong, that's always a meaningful human story. I think most of us identify with that."
To prepare for the role of a Mittel-European grande dame who spent the majority of her years on American soil, the Oscar and BAFTA-winning actress initially turned to a doctor friend in Los Angeles who knew Altmann's story and said Maria was exactly like his own mother. He interviewed his mother about her life on camera, offering Mirren a window into the well-educated Jewish-Viennese heritage she would be bringing to life on screen. "She had a similar trajectory to Maria and she still had a very strong accent," notes the actress. "It was very useful to me."
Mirren also watched Altmann's disposition and read as much as she could about her and the history of the time, particularly in regard to the annihilation of Europe's Jewish population. "The world of the movie is a much lighter world, but its roots are in that darker place," Mirren says. "The more I found out about Maria, the more I loved her. She had a wonderful sense of humour, a wonderful edginess about her, an incredible elegance and laid-back power. She seemed very powerful to me but in an understated way."
For Reynolds' part, he was drawn to the love story he saw in Schoenberg and Altmann's relationship and was determined to pull it off the page. "It's not a love story that culminates in a Third Act kiss," he adds, "but it's a quiet and fierce love between them that develops over the story. They're an unlikely duo and they butt heads a lot because they both have a tremendous amount of passion for what it is they're trying to achieve - to me, it felt like a love story."
Although Reynolds and Schoenberg eventually met during the Woman in Gold shoot, the actor avoided doing so early on, keen to avoid performing a facsimile of the real man. "I wanted to invent my own version of Randy," he says. "We don't look anything alike, we don't sound anything alike, so I didn't want to trap myself. When I did finally meet him, we hit it off like gang busters."
Woman in Gold will capture your heart and remain with you long after leaving the cinema. It is one of those great stories where two generations connect and change the world through heartfelt passion and untiring perseverance.
