To start off, kudos to Natalie Portman who proves that she can still act. After the disastrous Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, I was beginning to think that Portman was lost to intelligent films but then she came roaring back with this film and the just-released The Other Boleyn Girl. Under the experienced director Milos Forman, she acts the hell out the two different characters that she plays in the film. She is superbly cast as the naive young Ines who is "put to the question" by the Holy Order of the Spanish Inquisition for refusing pork at a meal but her talent really begins to shine when she emerges from the dungeon fifteen years later, caked with mud and scabs and disease. She has become a potentially mad woman, resembling the always spectacular Helena Bonham Carter, obsessed with finding the child that she gave birth to while in prison. She continues to impress as that very daughter, a young whore with a serious overbite in the final act of the film. Much of the credit undoubtedly goes to the make-up people for the physical transformations but Portman creates a distinct persona for each character and not once does she falter in keeping the characters separate from each other.
Also surprisingly well-acted is Javier Bardem's Brother Loreno, a fanatical priest who is eventually disgraced by the church and forced to flee to France where he becomes a prosecutor only to return to Spain, jail the leaders of the Inquisition (which he had started) and act as the harbinger of the ideals of the French revolution.
Ironically, Stellan Skarsgard, the titular character Goya, need hardly be in the film and serves only to anchor the plotlines together. His character is uninteresting and unimportant although his artwork and the themes behind it lend an interesting angle to the bureaucracy and religious zeal that abounds within the film.
The film's major weakness is its disjointed story. Set against a very contentious time in Spanish history in which the French and the British duel for control in Spain and Spain struggled to remain independent of the influence of Napoleon and other figures, the film often felt more like a history lesson than a narrative. Forman had the distinct challenge of not allowing this story to become about the history but about the individuals involved. He succeeds in doing so only in a few scenes. Too often, he allows himself to get caught up in the epic feel of the time period and forgets about Ines, Lorenzo and even Goya.
With that said, the film is tremendously successful in translating the fears of the time period to film. Both the fears of persecution by religious authority and the terror caused by invading, imperialist armies are palpable throughout the story. Additionally, the attention to detail and the backdrops for the scenes are breathtaking. From Goya's studio to the king's palace to the dungeons, every scene is littered with historical details and realism that would be fitting for a historical epic if only Forman had gone that direction.
Forman obviously has a keen sense of visual power. There are numerous images that are unforgettable within the film. One of the best is actually the last where the mad Ines skips along, carrying a baby which is not really hers and clinging to the hand of the dead Lorenzo as he is carted away from his execution, surrounded by dancing and singing children. If only Forman had had a more unified script to work with, this would have been a much better film. As it is,
the story is too disjointed to be enjoyed. Especially after it unexpectedly jumps ahead fifteen years. It is difficult to follow and difficult to piece together as a single narrative but for anyone interested in the Inquisition, the politics of dueling kingdoms and the influence of art in all of this, Goya's Ghosts is good viewing. Before the sudden time jump, in fact, it is excellent viewing.
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