“The Best Offer” is the newest film written and directed by Giuseppe
Tornatore – and if you ask me, I think of it as the (after a long time first) ‘movie
definitely worth seeing’. Geoffrey Rush’s performance as the elderly art
auctioneer Virgil Oldman in combination with the movie's cross-genre nature makes it one entertaining spectacle that will keep your eyes and mind
glued to the screen from the first to final scene.
The life and career of Virgin Oldman is, to an extent, an enviable one
for it is based on selling and collecting beautiful paintings and is filled with high gourmet
experiences and fine literature. However, the lack of love gives the character a sort of emotional emptiness – hence explaining his almost
obsessive devotion to a mysterious heiress/client, who in the end turns out (just like
the rest of his ‘friends’) to be a fraud. It is heart-breaking to see a man,
once self-sufficient and content, to be suddenly left alone with his haunting
thoughts and tormenting memories – and the unexpectedness of this climax makes
it all a more memorable story. Putting plot aside; taking place in high and wealthy social circles,
it is impossible to not sigh out of pure amazement at the - luckily plentiful! - shots of abandoned,
yet atmospheric European villas, posh restaurant interiors (including one in Prague) or Virgil’s collection of famous
female portraits, hidden in the modern-day Narnia wardrobe: a code-locked room
behind a shelved closet with leather gloves.
In short, it is basically a happy-end story of romance gone unexpectedly
dramatic with hints of subtle Agatha Christie-like mystery that will make you
leave the cinema in a sense of bewilderment, thinking “How could I have not seen that coming?” Apart from being visually
pleasing, the movie is most definitely going to make you want to see it again
and collect in a Sherlock Holmes fashion all clues that lead to the final crime… And until you do, this review is my best offer in helping you solve the mysteries of the plot.
- Anna Hupcejová
- Anna Hupcejová
