Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

loepp In movies about or involving painters, I'm always interested in the portrayal of the process and results of the art and then curious about who is the artist who made it for the film. I liked the paintings and sketches made for the film and felt their approximation of what Goya might have done had he actually painted those characters was good. An exact rendition would be impossible so I'm happy with just the illusion of good art. The portrait of Bardem's Lorenzo was particularly impressive and I liked his reaction. Someone had questioned in their review, why Goya becomes infatuated with Ines and her plight and why it isn't explained. The simple answer is that he painted her. Unless there was an involved narration or depiction of the act of painting and posing it goes without words that much was communicated with or without words during the collaboration of creating a portrait. A portrait painter examines a person, an object or scene with as much or more intensity as any other practitioner of art, science or observation. Goya would have become a person without prejudice and not quick to judge someone harshly. He would have known a great deal about Ines and Lorenzo and especially their better side, that which they would have put forth for his portrayal. Stellan Skarsgård's portrayal of Goya makes perfect sense.

pc95 Director Milos Forman has completely botched this disjointed mess of a story, "Goya's Ghosts". Direction, camera-work, and music are all distracting and confusing. Having Portman play Mother and Daughter was an awful choice - and the direction she takes is misplaced. Her characters are naive simpletons. By the end of the movie we've come full circle with societal changes and the mockery is complete and the dead horse continues to get beaten. Anytime you jump 15 years in story, you'd better be sure you have all loose ends tied up and they just don't seem so. How can the Head Priest not have passed away in 15 years, or the Lorenzo character actually look younger? These were technical problems. The revolution scenes seemed badly staged, and the Ines character's family some how dies the same day she's released. Give this one a miss unless you enjoy the period piece. It's worth repeating too, the music and score seemed woefully out-of-place - almost like James Bond music. A bad movie in a lot of ways.

inkslayer Goya's Ghosts is an appealing blend of creative fiction and history. It's the story of young Ines (Portman) and the consequences she endures for refusing to eat pig at the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Who knew someone's life could be turned upside down for not eating a roasted animal? It's also about horny Brother Lorenzo (Bardem). Or was he horny? Only a DNA test can tell us for sure, because years later, when Ines's child shows up, the screenwriters (Forman and Carriere) cleverly make the young woman look like her mother, not her father.And then there's Spanish print maker, romantic painter/painter to royalty, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Skarsgard). Interwoven into the story, Goya is so caught up in the thick of things that his desire to help and stabilize people becomes the backbone of this well-told drama.Who wins, who loses at the end? Watch and find out. It's a neat ending.For sure, Goya's etchings are the ghosts. The only way he could be social commentator during the time he lived was through his etchings. And through his etchings he could ridicule the corrupt and demented ways of society. Forman and Carriere take Goya's Ghosts and creatively present a story told in words and celluloid. I think Goya would be proud.

jathton the makers of motion pictures told stories that appealed to the mind as well as the heart. 'Goya's Ghosts' is such a movie. Think about the film for a moment... it was the story of a young woman and a priest... told through the surrounding tapestry of the life of an artist. The visual portion of the movie was as richly painted and presented as some of Goya's finest and most provocative canvases. The colors, the juxtaposition of light and shadow, the close-ups, and the fleeting glimpses of artists works combined into a sensual feast for the eye. And the story was just as complex, just as beautiful, and edited as only an editor passionately attached to a work can edit. The music was hauntingly and precisely joined to the scenes and the screenplay. And the story itself was wonderfully thought-provoking... the principals' rise, fall, rise again, fall once more... a once beautiful young girl spends the final frames following the man who least deserves her heart... and we are left with a question, an enormous question, regarding the blacks and whites we love to paint reality & our issues with. I do not judge the movies that are produced today. Each has its audience. I simply wish that more movies as truly wonderful as this one were produced and released. "Goya's Ghosts" is a finely crafted and beautifully presented story to watch unfold.