{"id":27375,"date":"2013-08-22T02:33:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T09:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=27375"},"modified":"2013-08-24T04:23:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-24T11:23:44","slug":"the-best-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=27375","title":{"rendered":"The Best Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Art and intrigue abound in The Best Offer<\/em>, Giuseppe Tornatore’s film starring Geoffrey Rush as the director of a leading auction house, renowned for his expertise in assessing art and identifying fakes.\u00a0 Rush is utterly captivating as Virgil Oldman, the scrupulously groomed eccentric who leads the life of a sybaritic monk, sparing no expense or even a momentary moral qualm in the indulgence of almost<\/em> every whim and desire.<\/p>\n

\"Virgil<\/a>
Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush) surrounded by his trophy women\/Photo courtesy of PR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rush’s ability to immerse himself in character is a pleasure. The first glimpse of this modern-day dandy is quite telling, the careful look of consideration in his eye as he picks up a musty old piece of wood, gives it a delicate sniff and proclaims, “It may look like a piece of moldy wood but centuries ago, beneath the mold, there must have been a painting.” Oldman gets his thrills in the excitement of discovery, the irresistible lure of being the one to find treasure where others, less observant, less knowing and cunning, might remain empty-handed.<\/p>\n

The alliance of art and commerce creates a realm of beauty and craftsmanship replete with ruthless competition and duplicity. The Best Offer<\/em> revels in luscious cinematography, lingering on eloquent frames, the fading daylight illuminating Oldman’s face as he stands outside the fateful villa, the sensual frisson as he touches a painting with his fingertips, the precise level of bubbles in a glass of champagne.<\/p>\n

Rush’s stellar performance is the best this frothy thriller has to offer, the intricacies of the plot are somewhat too predictable to satisfy the tastes of the more serious thrill-seeker, although Donald Sutherland is quite fun as Billy, Oldman’s partner in art-crime.<\/p>\n

The Best Offer<\/em> (Italy, 2012, 131 min, English with Hebrew subtitles)
\nDirected by Giuseppe Tomatore; starring: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks, Donald Sutherland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art and intrigue abound in The Best Offer, Giuseppe Tornatore’s film starring Geoffrey Rush as the director of a leading auction house, renowned for his expertise in assessing art and identifying fakes.\u00a0 Rush is utterly captivating as Virgil Oldman, the scrupulously groomed eccentric who leads the life of a sybaritic monk, sparing no expense or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}