Goya's Ghosts movie review & film summary (2007)

Consider an early scene. Footmen for King Carlos IV (Randy Quaid, and very good, too) throw an animal corpse in a field to attract vultures. Then the king shoots them, like pigeons. He also bags some rabbits, but Maria Luisa thinks she'd prefer the vultures for dinner. Other set pieces show the extraordinary cruelty of the dungeons, the obscene magnificence of the royal residences, the bawdy of the taverns, the boldness of the bordellos and streets teeming with life in the midst of death.

The actors invest their characters with surprising depth, considering how the plot has to keep so many story lines afloat. Skarsgard makes Goya into a man with a wonderful smile, an affable manner, and the confidence of an artist who stands outside the rules. Bardem, without making too much a point of it, shows an ambitious man, not enthusiastically evil but capable of the occasional vileness, who can convince himself he is both an inquisitor for the church and a prosecutor for the emperor (the same job, really). Portman plays Ines as a beautiful young girl and as a haggard torture victim, and Alicia as a vulnerable prostitute, all with fearless conviction. And Quaid, in a smaller role as the king, is an inspired if unexpected casting choice, as in a scene where he performs on a violin and almost bashfully confesses he composed the piece himself.

Much of the depth of the film comes from the sound design of Leslie Shatz; we hear precision in the ways vast church doors open and close, we hear far-off bells and echoing interiors, and the sound of shoulders being dislocated is understated but persuasive. And the cinematography of Javier Aguirresarobe is, well, painterly; look at the compositions, the colors, and especially the shading.

Now I must tell you that "Goya's Ghosts" got cruel reviews when it opened late last fall in Europe. I don't make a habit of reviewing reviews, but the advance word on this picture was impossible to avoid ("Creaks along like an anemic snail" -- Derek Malcolm; "Close to a disaster" -- the Telegraph; "Dull as dishwater" -- Neil Smith). Sometimes I wonder if critics aren't reviewing the film they would have preferred rather than the one the director made.

I doubt that Forman and the legendary screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere lacked the ability to tell a conventional story. I think the clue to their purpose is right there in the opening scene of the Goya drawings. Look carefully, and you may find something in the film to remind you of most of them. "Goya's Ghosts" is like the sketchbook Goya might have made with a camera.

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