No Goyas For This Spectre - - Goya’s Ghost (2006) - - 12 June 2012

Not recommended. There’s nothing outrageously wrong with Goya’s Ghost; it’s just not worth the trouble. I’m not sure why so few Spanish actors were used as leads. I didn’t get a very authentic feeling for either Stellan Skarsgård (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) as Goya or Natalie Portman (Black Swan) as Inez, his model (where was Penelope Cruz?). Portman plays both mother and daughter in a gimmick more confusing than interesting. Javier Bardem is, of course, Spanish but the quirkiness that was so effective in No Country For Old Men is less than useful here. And Randy Quaid (Independence Day) as King Carlos IV is just weird. But Iberian Javier Aguirresarobe’s (The Others, The Road) sepia photography is beautiful and the production values (Patrizia von Brandenstein, Amadeus, The Untouchables) are sumptuous. Milos Forman’s (Amadeus) direction results in a brisk, interesting story . . . he just needed different actors to tell it.