The following review makes reference to the 2013 film The Best Offer, and does not contain spoilers of any type.

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Year: 2013 Category: Psychological Thriller. Director: Giuseppe Tornatore. Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks, Donald Sutherland.

Plot

Virgil Oldman, a lonely and eccentric man, is an art expert and a much appreciated auction agent. His life takes place without any feeling or emotion until he meets a beautiful and mysterious young woman who commissioned him to assess and sell the works of art inherited from his parents.

Opinion

Virgil Oldman, a managing director of a preeminent auction house, has a lot of money and enjoys good reputation in his work, what nobody knows is that with his friend Billy Whistler, he keeps a scam that allows him to acquire pieces of art, especially paintings of women, for a much lower value, which accumulates in his vast personal collection to which nobody has access.

One day Virgil receives a call from Claire Ibbetson, who intends to use Virgil's professional services in order to value the properties that she has inherited from her father, and then auction them. And although at the beginning Virgil refuses to attend her personally, because he is very exclusive, but at Claire's insistence he ends up yielding, only to discover that she evades him.

Virgil thinks that Claire wastes his time, but when discovers that she suffers agoraphobia, and that she has lived in seclusion for many years, he is invaded by curiosity, mystery and the desire to dig deeply the intriguing figure of Claire.

The film is masterfully directed by the Italian genius Giuseppe Tornatore, who poses a very careful aesthetic, a fantastic staging that manages to catch the viewer and immerse him in the refined world of the protagonist, accompanying his scenes with the music of the great Ennio Morricone invading the senses of the spectator and making the feelings that the story wants to convey reach the viewer.

The script, also made by Giuseppe Tornatore, is excellent. The specialized critics who spoke about this film and made a negative assessment, put as the main fault the script, however, after investigating and reading online some appreciations of the viewers, my vision about the script, which at first coincided with the criticism specialized, changed completely. It's the kind of film that leaves you thinking after seeing it, and that's thanks to the great direction that is based on a solid script, to which personally would only object one thing, but I will not mention to not make any spoilers.

The acting work is great, the protagonist of the work, Geoffrey Rush, is sublime in his performance, without him the film was very different, his performance is really very convincing in every moment of the story. Jim Sturgess, whom I always remember mainly for his starring role in the movie 21, perfectly accompanies Rush, since his character is young, updated, and skilful with the girls, which serves as the perfect counterpart to the main character, the which is old, outdated, and without ability to relate to the opposite sex. Sylvia Hoeks complies with the necessary in an acceptable way, although without adding much more than required. Finally, Donald Sutherland, who appears shorter on screen, and meets the necessary with his presence.

In short, it is a film that without a doubt I would recommend, and although I know that many will be satisfied, I know that others will not be totally, so I would recommend them to investigate more about the film once they have seen it, if the curiosity doing it does not come naturally. Sure they will find explanations to many doubts or things that overlooked.

Trailer

Score

8/10

Excellent direction, good script, great performance by Geoffrey Rush, a film that I personally recommend. At the time of publishing this review the film is available in the Netflix catalog for the following countries: Hungary, Italy, Japan, Romania and Switzerland.