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All Movie Info
Starring:
Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård, Randy Quaid, Blanca Portillo, Michael Lonsdale, José Luis Gómez, Mabel Rivera, Simón Andreu, Eusebio Lázaro, Jose Luis, Craig Stevenson, Jack Taylor, Unax Ugalde, Julian Wadham, Frank Baker, Javier Coromina, José Alias, Manolo Caro, Scott Cleverdon, Fernando Tielve, Víctor Israel, Balbino Acosta, Fran Antón, Carlos Bardem, Antonio Bellido, Mercedes Castro, Manuel de Blas, Marcos García Casalderrey, Víctor Israel, Ramón Langa, Andrés Lima, Emilio Linder, Cayetano Martínez de Irujo, Enrique Martínez, Toni Rodriguez, Alejandro Tous, Wael Al Moubayed, Genoveva Casanova, Paco Hidalgo, Tamar Novas, Benito Sagredo, Aurélia Thiérrée
Directed By:
Milos Forman
Written By:
Milos Forman
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Goya's Ghosts (2007)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
July 27th, 2007
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'Goya's Ghosts' finds the famous Spanish artist, Francisco Goya (Skarsgard), witnessing the Inquisition, actually an Inquisition, since the first one occurred in the late 15th century, and this movie is set in late 18th century. In any case, the Catholic Church seeks to maintain power and order, and is still concerned about heretics and subversives in its midst, and these worries are increased by the French Revolution, which starts up right next door, and is secular in nature, hoping to abolish the monarchy, and diminish the influence of religion. Goya is not a victim.
He does paintings for the church, and is also working on a portrait of the queen, Maria Luisa (Blanca Portillo). He gets involved, however, after Tomas (Gomez) approaches him and asks him to intervene on behalf of his daughter, Ines (Portman), one of Goya's former models, who has been arrested and imprisoned on charges of Judaism, after she refuses pork at a tavern. The primary enforcer of this new wave of terror is Lorenzo (Bardem), a ruthless, ambitious priest. Ines is tortured, in scenes that are unsparingly gruesome, but effective and harrowing nonetheless. She is then thrown in jail, with little chance of release. That is, until the persecution ends with Napoleon's conquest of Spain 15 years later. Lorenzo now works for him, as a prosecutor, and one of his first tasks is rounding up the Inquisitor General, Father Gregorio (Michael Lonsdale), once Lorenzo's superior. Ines gets out, too, as we might expect, and chances are she is not going to be too happy if she bumps into Lorenzo again.
She also hides a rather dirty secret that he wishes were not revealed. The overstuffed plot is occasionally confusing and boring, failing to generate much interest, especially in the second half, which is filled with silly, overblown melodrama. The cinematography, by Javier Aguirresarobe is gorgeous, and the period is recreated beautifully, with terrific costume and sound design, but the technical achievements are undermined by an aimless and meandering story, which sort of forsakes Goya, who is really just an observer and a bystander, who has connections to both Lorenzo and Ines.
Lorenzo defends Goya from his comrades in the church, who have grown suspicious of him, and Goya turns to Lorenzo to ask him about Ines's well-being. Ines finds Goya and wants him to help her find her child, which was taken away immediately after birth (she had the child in prison). Ines's daughter, named Alicia, is working as a prostitute (and is played by Portman, as well), while Ines herself ends up in an asylum, which is largely Lorenzo's doing. See what I mean by overstuffed? More things happen after all of this, but why spoil the excitement? Skarsgard is good, but underused, and maybe not quite right, as he looks nothing like the real Goya, and a Swede playing a Spaniard produces some accent problems, too. Portman is better as Ines than Alicia (not convincing at all in that role), and goes through physical and emotional punishment, as she did in V for Vendetta.
Bardem is the real star. Far from being his best performance, it is interesting and complex, as Lorenzo, initially detestable, becomes slightly more sympathetic towards the end, though many of his actions are indeed cruel and selfish. Director Milos Forman, famous for the Oscar winners Amadeus and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, certainly has made something of lower quality than either of those two classics, but it is certainly not bad by any standard. Oh, and I think it is a little weird that Randy Quaid plays King Carlos IV, complete with wig.
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