woman in gold

my brain is rather, at the moment, like someone who has overeaten without exercise.  it seems i've taken in so much richness and fodder for thinking but have failed to express myself about it all, and so i blog, in hopes of engaging you in dialogue of an intellectual nature.

i took myself to see "woman in gold" because helen mirren is one of my favorite actors, gustav klimt is one of my favorite painters, and the 1940's are one of my favorite historical periods. the film had captured my attention when i saw the trailer for it a few months back, but i couldn't remember what it was called.  then, when it came out last wednesday, i couldn't wait to see it.  i don't feel that way about many movies, and it was worth it.

(in the opening scene there is a close-up of klimt's hand cutting gold foil in the technique of the medieval scribes i just learned about!--and wrestled with myself, rather unsuccessfully). 

without giving a spoiler alert in case you see it , i will say it is based on a true story of an austrian woman's search for justice regarding a *portrait of her aunt that was looted by the nazi's in vienna at the start of WWII.  i thought it was very well done with appropriate flashbacks as she returns to the city where she grew up and was married, reliving the time when she had to part with her family and flee to america.

*the real title of the painting is her aunt's name "adele" but in the efforts to dehumanize the jews the painting was simply renamed, "woman in gold".  

if you've seen it, what are your impressions on the film?