THE BEST OFFER (La migliore offerta) directed by Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy, 2013)
The current wiki succinctly provides viewers with the bare bones of the plot of this movie by describing it as the story of “a loveless elderly man [who] intersects with an astute young man and a mysterious woman in a central European setting”.
The elderly man in question is named Virgil Oldman (‘old man’ – geddit?) and the unspecified city is probably Florence. This setting must make the fact that everyone speaks English in the original a bit weird although is less odd in the version dubbed into Italian that I saw.
Oldman is played with panache by Geoffrey Rush. He is an eccentric and mega-wealthy art dealer /auctioneer and a lifelong collector of women, albeit those safety contained on canvas and depicted by the world’s greatest portrait painters. Flesh and blood females are more of an issue and he’s not really a people person at all.
He has a vast collection of designer gloves which he wears at all times (even when eating). He reserves his bare hands for touching art objects and by these means is able to intuitively establish the authenticity of a painting with more accuracy than the most sophisticated computer technology. He is given to sage comments like “even in a forgery there is an element of truth”.
Sylvia Hoeks plays the mysterious younger woman named Claire Ibeson who inhabits a large old mansion full of precious art works. Having inherited these after her parents were killed in a car crash she makes the decision to sell the lot and employs Oldman to oversee the process. She allegedly suffers from agoraphobia and seems to have a profound fear of people as well as open spaces which is presumably why Virgil comes to regard her as a soul mate even before he’s clapped eyes on her.
Thus begins a contrived and highly unlikely courtship with a level of intrigue and voyeurism that has more than a few passing nods to Hitchcock in general and Vertigo in particular. For example, Oldman buys Claire a set of expensive gowns to dress her up like his very own supermodel, which Hoeks actually is when not pretending to be an actress.
Jim ‘One Day’ Sturgess is the astute young man named Robert who being something of a Casanova feels qualified to give Oldman wooing tips. He runs an implausibly large shop mending retro mechanical stuff – which looks like he started out as a watchmaker then branched out big time. The prominent product placement of a large Apple computer also shows that he’s techno savvy to boot.
The other character of note is Donald Sutherland as Billy Whistler who is paid by Oldman to do his bidding, literally. Having picked out the prize portraits, Whistler, who sports a bizarre mane of long white hair, is employed as a buyer in the auctions Oldham conducts. These days Sutherland seems content to play these cameo roles and doesn’t look inclined to invest anything more than the minimum energy in them.
The temptation to spoil the ending to save you the trouble of sitting through this hokum is strong but I’ll resist. Suffice to say that both the convoluted plot and the supporting cast lack any credibility so Tornatore’s movie works only as an elaborate vehicle for the sublime acting talents of Geoffrey Rush.
