The Lady in Gold

My sister and I watched The Woman in Gold today.  It was so good.  Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds were amazing.  It is the story of Maria Altmann (Mirren) deciding to try and recover some of the possessions her family had stolen when the Nazis took over Austria, her homeland.  The death of her sister uncovers a postcard of her aunt's painting by Klimt; and she decides to attempt, with Austria's new stance on restitution, to get the painting back.  Several paintings were looted from her family home, but she most greatly desired to have the painting of her Aunt Adele returned.  She asks a family friend if her son, a lawyer, would look into the case for her.  The lawyer, Randy Schoenberg, is sceptical about the case, but decides to take on the case when he realizes how much the painting is worth.  He originally goes into the case for monetary reasons, but a visit to his family's homeland, Austria, changes his mind.  They begin to pursue the restitution of her family's property, all the way up to the Supreme Court!

It's a beautiful historical piece about art, the war, and how lives were changed. I loved the flash back pieces that showed the life that Maria lived with her family back in Austria.  I highly recommend going out and watching this movie.  It's an underdog, true-story, for sure; just someone trying to take on the whole of Austria for a million dollar painting. :) It's really eye-opening to see all the things that families had stripped away from them and were then taken as prized possessions of people who hate Jewish people.  One of the Altmann family's art pieces was displayed in Hitler's home!  And some other German lady was given the very necklace that Adele is wearing in her portrait painting: The Lady in Gold.