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Lions for Lambs
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Moondance Alexander
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Goya's Ghosts
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
 |
|
MPAA RATING: R for violence, disturbing images, some sexual content and nudity
Starring
Javier Bardem,
Natalie Portman,
Stellan Skarsgård,
Randy Quaid,
Blanca Portillo,
Michael Lonsdale,
José Luis Gómez,
and
Mabel Rivera
Goya?s Ghosts is a sweeping historical epic told through the eyes of celebrated Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Set against the backdrop of political turmoil at the end of the Spanish Inquisition and start of the invasion of Spain by Napoleon?s army, the film captures the essence of beauty of Goya?s work which is best known for both the colorful depictions of the royal court and its people, and his grim depictions of the brutality of war and life in 18th century Spain. Brother Lorenzo, an enigmatic, cunning member of the Inquisition?s inner circle who becomes infatuated with Goya?s teenage muse, Ines when she is falsely accused of heresy and sent to prison. (Samuel Goldwyn Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Jean-Claude Carrière
Milos Forman
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Milos Forman
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 26, 2008
Theatrical: July 20, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
114 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Spain |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Ghosts is one of Forman's most ambitious and daring films; would that all of its ambitions were fulfilled.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Goya's Ghosts is like the sketchbook Goya might have made with a camera.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
An oddly structured tale about Francisco Goya and the Spain that he lived and worked in.

75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
There is so little emotionally or intellectually at stake in most popular entertainment that Goya's Ghosts, Milos Forman's challenging, compelling and wildly uneven film, shoots like a cannonball into the solar plexus. I can't remember when I've been so physically and mentally shattered.

70
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Far from an embarrassment and a generally fine piece of work.

70
Variety
Jonathan Holland
Ambitious script is stranded between entertainment and intellectualism, leaving us with a magnificent folly, thoroughly watchable for its visuals but ultimately hollow.

67
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Though not nearly as perfect as Amadeus and The People vs. Larry Flynt (to cite two of Forman's previous semibiographical efforts), Goya's Ghosts uses the lives of artists and historical figures to show us the best and the worst of our human impulses.

63
Miami Herald
Marta Barber
Captures the essence of the period -- an intriguing, backward era in Spain -- but without the emotional impact that such a film requires.

63
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Although the period feeling is convincing, Forman doesn't seem to know exactly what he wants to say about this intensely complex era - and that leaves his cast floundering.

60
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
Lavish production and wardrobe design, as well as beautiful cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe make Goya's Ghosts lovely to look at, but as a portrait of the artist, the movie is a letdown.

60
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Below-the-line credits are terrific, which only increases an overwhelming sense of disappointment with the film's failed ambitions.

58
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The film is mostly forced and heavyhanded. Forman first thought of using Goya to tell a story about the Inquisition several decades ago. Yet this movie appears to be as much about American behavior post-Sept. 11 as it is about 18th-century Spain or the Communist Czechoslovakia of Forman's youth.

50
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Whatever the faults of Goya's Ghosts -- and there are several -- you've got to hand it to director Milos Forman: It takes real chutzpah to cast Randy Quaid as the king of Spain.

50
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
The biggest tragedy about Milos Forman's foray into the life and times of Spanish artist Francisco De Goya is the waste of so much great raw material.

50
The New York Times
Matt Zoller Seitz
An unwieldy mix of political satire and lavish period soap opera.

50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
The film's seriousness of intent is unimpeachable ? Forman and Carriere see disturbing echoes of the modern world in 18th-century Spain -- but the execution borders on farce.

50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
The movie is uneven in the extreme, to the extent that it feels like two imperfectly wed pictures. The first, while not extraordinary, at least contains some interesting ideas. The second borders on embarrassing: an overblown melodrama complete with coincidence building upon coincidence and plot threads that are left unresolved.

50
Village Voice
Charles Petersen
The film takes as many plot-twists as "Pirates of the Caribbean"; distinctly Goya in its emphasis on the grotesque, it shows none of the Spaniard's artistic economy.

50
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
The whole thing is handsomely mounted, with plenty of Goya paintings and supposed observations about the ironies of history and the cyclical nature of life, etc. Forman's always been a huckster, but I never thought I'd see him waste this many good actors on a movie this bad.

50
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Handsome but stilted.

42
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
Though much blood is shed, the film is bloodless.

42
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
If Forman is trying to communicate that art isn't an effective way to change American society, he's proved his point neatly with this muddled, wandering dud.

38
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
An overstuffed turkey that's entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

25
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
The Spanish Inquisition was better summed up in an eight-minute musical number by Mel Brooks than in the entirety of Goya's Ghosts, an across-the-board disaster from one of my favorite directors, Milos Forman.

25
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
In a season of digital bombast, it can be a relief to walk into a stodgy life-of-the-great-man costume drama. Goya's Ghosts, before it turns into a messy, horse-drawn load, achieves a civilized stuffiness that gives off its own mild pleasure.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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