Impressively made, watchable costume drama with strong performances from its three leads, despite the unusual casting.
Comment
05/04/07
Goya's Ghosts (2007)
29
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:83
Fresh:24
Rotten:59
Average Rating:4.8/10
Consensus: Ornate costumes and a talented cast can't make up for Ghosts' glacial pace and confused plot.
Theatrical Release:04-05-2007
Synopsis: From two-time Academy Award® winning director Milos Forman and three-time Academy Award® winning producer Saul Zaentz, GOYA'S GHOSTS is a sweeping historical epic, told through the eyes of... [More]
Starring: Natalie Portman, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgaard, Randy Quaid
Director: Milos Forman
Reviews for Goya's Ghosts
The whole thing creaks along like an anaemic snail.
05/04/07
It’s as dull as the proverbial ditchwater.
05/04/07
Any film that sets its vision of Spain in the era of Inquisition and Napoleon against Goya's needs to have something pretty special to offer; this one doesn't.
05/04/07
Top CriticClassy cinematography and powerful performances by all.
05/04/07
Close to a disaster.
05/04/07
Top CriticThe idea and presence of Goya himself is somehow off-centre and off-balance throughout this directionless movie.
05/04/07
Top CriticIt’s never entirely clear who or what the film is about.
05/04/07
Top CriticSumptuously filmed, but so lacking in a central narrative focal point that for all its pretences, Goya's Ghosts succeeds in saying nothing at all.
05/04/07
Top CriticDespite noteworthy attention to period detail in production and costume design, these are not enough to carry the film's confused plot.
05/04/07
Top CriticThis is a set of footnotes rather than a fully achieved film — but it’s so packed with tidbits of interest it can’t fail to be intermittently diverting.
05/04/07
Top CriticWith its riffs on art, its split-in-half story and Goya-esque production design, you can see it reaching for grand ideas about actions and their reverberations, but it merely rumbles on, illuminating neither the artist nor his tumultuous times.
05/03/07
Top CriticThe cast is rather too eclectic for its own good. These are superior actors, but thrown together like this they all stick out like sore thumbs.
05/03/07
Cumbersome and often stilted, Goya's Ghosts remains a worthy drama
08/27/09
Click to read the article
01/18/08
Goya, aqui, é o coadjuvante de luxo de uma história que não faz jus nem mesmo aos seus protagonistas.
12/21/07
A storyline that turns so silly, you half-expect Mel Brooks to show up reprising his "Inquisition" musical number from History of the World Part I.
10/10/07
Goya gets lost as the filmmakers turn Spanish history into a chronicle of easy contemporary targets. They don't just hit the social-political bull's-eye -- they obliterate it with a cannon and inadvertently scorch the dramatic landscape all around it.
09/07/07
Captures the essence of the period -- an intriguing, backward era in Spain -- but without the emotional impact that such a film requires.
08/24/07
Reminds us of the wisdom behind the title of Goya's most famous etching: 'The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.'
08/24/07
Latest News for Goya's Ghosts
June 29, 2007:
The ultimate accidental insight provided by the film is that history may be recorded by the victors, but it is far less amenable to being smoothly scripted or orchestrated, either by foreign empires or filmmakers. 
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June 04, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review
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March 31, 2007:
european-films.net's preview & trailer
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March 23, 2007:
The Weekly Ketchup: "Pirates 3" Trailer, Natalie Portman In The Buff, "300" Sequel Talk, And More!
In this week's Ketchup, the first trailer for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" appears on RT, Natalie Portman delights many by showing her stuff in... More...
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