Woman in Gold

Recent cinematic history has not been kind to stories recounting infamous Nazi larceny of precious artwork during World War II.

First there was the George Clooney flop Monuments Men and now there’s Woman in Gold, a mildly intriguing but hopelessly sentimental true-life saga from British director Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn).

The bulk of the story takes place in the late 1990s, when Jewish octogenarian Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren) wants to reclaim some of her family heritage in the form of artwork and other heirlooms seized by the Nazis. The most famous is a portrait by Gustav Klimt of Maria’s aunt, Adele, known as “The Lady in Gold.”

The painting has become a treasure for the Austrian government, which clearly has no plans to relinquish it. So Maria hires young lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) — grandson of the famed composer — to build a case.

The resulting journey, which eventually reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, threatens Randy’s livelihood and forces Maria to confront some past demons that caused her to flee Vienna for the United States decades ago.

Woman in Gold obviously is more for the Mirren fan base than the Reynolds fan base, and she delivers with a performance that resonates with sweet-natured melancholy as a grieving woman trying to find a bittersweet sense of closure.

Yet Curtis and rookie screenwriter Alexi Kaye Campbell struggle to find a consistent tone, as the comedic banter between Maria and Randy feels forced, and the effort to frame the contemporary sequences as a legal thriller are transparent. Such a scatterbrained approach, combined with the awkward parallel narrative structure with flashbacks to the romantic story behind the creation of the painting, muddles the overall emotional impact.

The film uses embellishments to yank at the heartstrings in a way that exploits rather than enhances the source material, which is a shame because Maria and Randy each have compelling backgrounds that deserve to be recognized (and have been in a couple of documentaries about the case) — likewise the Klimt painting itself, which is one of the most heralded portraits by the Austrian artist.

Art-history aficionados might appreciate the debate over the legal and sentimental value of iconic paintings, but modern-day contrivances compromise much of the historical significance, and the result is not a pretty picture.

Rated PG-13, 109 minutes.