/ / / / / / / /

The Best Offer (2013): Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore's haunting tale of love

, , , , , , , Edit
A modern masterpiece with thrills of a classic Hitchcock 

The Best Offer, English Poster, Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, starring Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks
The Best Offer (2013) - By Giuseppe Tornatore
IMDb Ratings: 7.8
Genre: Crime | Drama | Romance
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks
Country: Italy
Language: English
Runtime: 131 min
Color: Color

Summary: A story centered on an eccentric art auctioneer and his obsession with an heiress/collector.

Is Love an Art? And just like Art, can love be forged or faked? However, everyone can make his or own deductions. To say one is right and the other is wrong will be a futile exercise. As in this movie itself, is it really love that the protagonists feel or is it something else?

 Then, there are other feelings explored in the movie as well. Pride, jealousy, fear, curiosity, lust, these are some of the emotions, which are masterfully captured in this movie. All tied together by some superb performances from all the main characters. And the mystery is carefully preserved by the editing and the background score.
Geoffrey Rush as Virgil Oldman in The Best Offer, Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Geoffrey Rush as Virgil Oldman in The Best Offer
But apart, from the story, what I love about this movie is Geoffrey Rush. He has played some unforgettable characters like Captain Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and Lionel in The Kings Speech. His oratorical skills combined with the voice quality makes words linger in your mind. He is surely in the same ilk as Robert De Niro, Amitabh Bachchan and Christolph Waltz, who can deftly combine fine acting and voice to deliver memorable performances. 

 In The Best Offer, he has once again played another memorable character, Virgil Oldman—a rich successful and eccentric art evaluator and auctioneer with keen of eye for high art, a man who remains unmarried in his life-long quest of collecting 'women', his only love, never feeling alone in their ‘company’.
Jim Sturgess as Virgil's gadget man friend Robert, works to repair the automaton in The Best Offer, Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Jim Sturgess as Virgil's gadget man friend Robert
However, his whole life turns upside down when he meets someone much like him, who shares the same fears and fills him with intrigue and mystery—a young heiress of a famous family, who much like him, is all alone in the world. It is the curiosity, at first, for finding some strange machine parts lying around in her estate that stoke in him a desire to know more about this reclusive girl who is years younger to him. 

 Slowly, as the curiosity grows too much for him, he turns to his young gadget man friend (Jim Sturgess) who is helping him to assemble the parts. The latter advises him on ways to ‘court’ her. After so many years, he is presented with a chance to know what love really is, a chance to do something for someone else, an opportunity to face the unpredictability of a real woman, something he knew very little about, unlike his previous ‘encounters’ where he was always in control.
Geoffrey Rush as Vigil Oldman with his eclectic art collection of woman, Sylvia Hoeks as the heiress Claire, in The Best Offer, Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
A Still from Giuseppe Tornatore's The Best Offer
The transformation is predictable. Two incompatible souls, but perfectly compatible for each other, falling for each other. Or so you would want to think? 

 Director Giuseppe Tornatore, is a true master at capturing human emotions. Tornatore's movies have melodious music and beautiful cinematography, especially the cityscapes, which exquisitely capture the lives and times of the protagonists, thereby adding more layers to his story. His expertise, according to me, seems to be in poignant depiction of unfulfilled, undying love. Use of silence, with long pauses, accompanied by soulful music in the background, allows story-telling to continue in a fluid, unperturbed natural pace. His others masterpieces include Nuovo Cinema Paradiso and Malena. I certainly will try to catch his other works. 

 About Author - 


Thomas Samuel is an avid movie watcher who enjoys reading reviews and occasionally pens down a few of his favorites. The views expressed are personal.

Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your feedback is highly appreciated!

For more information on the title, please click on the following links:


The Best Offer (2013) Trailer


A Potpourri of Vestiges
People who liked this also liked...
Share on Google Plus

4 comments:

  1. Murtaza AliNovember 16, 2013 at 5:01 PM

    Well, I personally loved the film... a certain section of the audience seem to have an issue or two with its ending but I just loved the movie as a whole. Geoffrey Rush is just spectacular to watch, as he so often is... he shares great chemistry with Sylvia Hoeks and Donald Sutherland in the movie. You have brilliantly summed up the movie in your short and crisp film analysis. I enjoyed reading it a lot... would also like to thank you for your valuable contribution to my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UmaNovember 18, 2013 at 4:56 AM

    It was something new read to me. Loved reading very bit of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Murtaza AliNovember 18, 2013 at 9:23 AM

    I am glad you enjoyed it!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Murtaza AliJuly 6, 2014 at 1:10 AM

    Thanks for leaving the link behind... will share my thoughts on the same very soon.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing for valuable opinion. We would be delighted to have you back.

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )