Woman in Gold

Like her compatriots Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren is one of the preeminent actresses alive today, and even in less-than-stellar films, she never phones in her performances. She plays Altmann with the dignity and grace you'd expect of a woman who spent her first 22 years living in the luxury and elegance of upper-crust Vienna. With her lingering accent and sense of refinement, Altmann is a woman with high standards and a mission to secure either her family-owned art or, at the very least, a public apology from the Austrian government. Mirren, like Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, is the main reason to see the film.

The flashbacks are a necessary and powerful interruption to the legal problems Maria and Randy face in 1998. Maria's memories shift between her childhood in the '20s and her wedding reception one year before the Anschluss brought Nazi rule, rampant anti-Semitism, and deportations to her lifelong home. As a young married woman, Maria is played by the talented Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black). Maslany and Max Irons, who plays Maria's opera singer husband, Fritz Altmann, are so compelling as newlyweds facing the unthinkable that it's hard not to wish the movie were about them, rather than the elder Maria dealing with her rookie attorney's lawsuit. Reynolds is really the weak link in this movie. He's not convincing in the role, and Mirren does most of the dramatic heavy lifting. Ultimately this is a Mirren vehicle, and her performance will make audiences long for their own beloved aunts, just as Maria longs to have the Klimt painting of her beautiful Aunt Adele.