Amadeus director Milos Forman
plunders the annals of European history again in Goya's
Ghosts, which spans Spanish sagas from the Inquisition
to Napoleon's invasion and consequent defeat by the
British. But what of Goya himself? Rendering this period
in stunning historical detail and with the sterling cast
of Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem and Stellan Skarsgard,
this apparent biopic turns out to be a mostly engaging,
yet bumpy ride through torrid historical times.
The film opens with the Inquisition questioning whether
their Brother Lorenzo (Bardem) should sit for a portrait
with the controversial Goya (Skarsgard). Meanwhile, they
arrest and torture the artist's muse Ines (Portman) for
being a Jew, after she turned her nose up at some roast
pork. Goya aids Ines's wealthy family by introducing
them to Lorenzo who, by an unlikely piece of plotting,
is bullied into helping Ines but ends up raping her.
With the big moral arguments of the film laid out, it
then cuts to fifteen years later and the arrival of the
French to reintroduce the cast to each other, throw in
some even more implausible plot twists and still not
really tell us much about Goya.
"GOYA IS THE BACKBONE, NOT THE HEART"
It's an unusual premise for a biopic, probing outwards
into history rather than into the soul of the artist,
but Goya's Ghosts doesn't quite work. Goya is the
backbone, not the heart of the story; merely an excuse
to give more interesting threads something in common.
Fair enough, artists are observers, but we knew that
already. It's the titular painter who ends up being the
ghost here, floating in the background of the action
without truly contributing to it. Despite noteworthy
attention to period detail in production and costume
design, these are not enough to carry the film's
confused plot.