The Best Offer - Das höchste Gebot

Great movies have the power to make you think and this movie had me thinking for so long I couldn't sleep on the night I saw it. It is a tremendous film with a deeply unsettling message and even now, 24 hours after seeing it I am haunted by the end.

It's a fairy story and nightmare rolled into one. It's not what happens that's important it's how it happens. the story is great but the plot is even better.

Forget the bad reviews and make up your own mind. If you subscribe to the notion that Life imitates Art or Art imitates Life go see it. You won't be disappointed.

Certainly not your every day movie. This story pulls you in from the very beginning.

I expected very little, but being familiar with Geoffrey Rush and his prior role selections did hold some expectation as to what kind of a story and setting I would be witness to.

May I say that after watching this movie, I am certain I will see his character from this film in future when seeing Rush perform. His execution of the role was impeccable.

Overall - movies are very rarely made like this, from storyline, script, acting to music, there was not a moment in which i wasn't captivated.

Chilled to the bone even after completing the film, this is top shelf work and an unlikely gem I commend and will be indefinitely complementing and recommending.

Certainly a timeless movie, embark on with a cup of tea (or some pop corn) and settle in for a remarkable journey and emotion roller coaster.

10 stars.

The only Guiseppe Tornatore film I've seen is Cinema Paradiso which is an absolute masterpiece. It surprises me that he was only in his early 30s when he directed it as the film already showed the work of an expert, given that his other films aren't as notable. The Best Offer, with its tight screenplay, lush sets, brilliant performance by Geoffrey Rush and beautiful score by Ennio Morricone, also exemplifies the sophisticated expertise filmmaking. It's refreshing to see a film with a unique universe grounded in the culture of our own with some bizarrely specific themes. While my only complaint is that the dialogue has this very "written" quality about it that is near impossible to deliver in a natural way, it's at least consistent throughout.

The story is constantly intriguing, held together by a Hitchcockian mystery feeling, and always pays off in a unique way. I'm not one for "old man and young girl romance" stories as they're rarely without uncomfortable perversion but The Best Offer completely justifies it with its well developed characters and themes. However, what makes this film so special and strange is the dramatic turn in the third act. Heartbreaking not only for the characters but for the audience that the film changes so drastically. But this is what made the film stick with me so much. It's wonderful to have a film that you toss and turn in your head, trying to figure out what it's all about. I can't divulge as anybody who hasn't seen it will be spoiled. Just go watch one of the best offers 2013 cinema has in store so far.

8/10

"The Best Offer" is an unusual, stylish movie with a clever story.

From the beginning we sense there is a mystery at its heart, and indeed, it keeps you wondering right to the end.

I wouldn't give away too much of the plot and spoil the enjoyment for anyone discovering it for the first time, however there are other things to enjoy about "The Best Offer" other than the twists and turns of the story.

Geoffrey Rush plays Virgil Oldman, a successful art connoisseur and auctioneer who is asked to evaluate and sell the estate of Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks), a reclusive young heiress who has not left her home for years. Virgil is a man of epicurean taste, who also has some carefully guarded issues regarding his near worship of beautiful women, which has manifested itself in an impressive private collection of paintings of women through the ages.

As he begins to catalogue the Ibbetson estate, we realise that the artefacts he uncovers and the growing relationship with his strange young client touch not only his vanities but also probe his phobias and fantasies.

This is a film of many layers. We get an insider view of a world of wealth, privilege and a taste, but we also get an intimate look at Virgil Oldman; we see beyond the aloof, cool exterior to the man of deeply repressed vulnerabilities - it is a thoughtful performance by Geoffrey Rush.

There is a great deal of artwork shown in the film including a couple of portraits by a fictional artist named Jansky, supposedly of great value, and important to the plot. Paintings that receive great reverence in movies are sometimes a bit of a let down when they appear on the screen, often being simply retouched photos ("Laura") or just badly executed works that show the producers had little taste or knowledge of art.

That is not the case here, the filmmakers obviously went to some trouble to commission paintings from a very good artist (Russian artist Katerina Panikakova according to one source) and the interesting-looking portraits fit perfectly into the superb look and feel of the whole film.

"The Best Offer" is an Italian production, and the love of art and beauty lends an Italian sensibility to the whole thing. Adding to the atmosphere is the distinctive Ennio Morricone score.

Although the Mamet-esque ending brings the drama to a logical enough conclusion, like many films, the journey is the most satisfying aspect of "The Best Offer" - even if, sadly, it only reinforces the notion that there is no fool like an old fool.

This is, by far, my most favorite movie of this year! I've always been a Geoffrey Rush fan, but in this movie, I've seen a very special Rush who, by the way his on screen persona goes thru a life changing metamorphosis, creates a real, day-to-day living among us man with real life personal fears, heartbreaking disillusions and self rediscovering. He makes us care for the very rigid and robotic Virgil Oldman in a way that surprises the senses. He is, in the beginning, a character who most people would find repelling by his uncomfortable attitude and bossy ways. But, as the movie proceeds, he is changed by this peculiar and frightful young woman who has a way of bringing him up, and crushing him down within minutes in their dialog. I must say that director Tornatore wrote this amazingly beautiful story with a golden pencil, I'm sure. This is not another love story. It's a life story, set in the world of Arts, where there's more to discover behind the colors of paintings and the still faces of sculptures than meets the eye. As the movie comes to an end, you will face a difficult task: to be thankful that such a story made it to the big screen, or to desire that it would've remain only in the writer's mind and heart. I give it a full 10, with no regrets. Awaiting more from Tornatore-Rush team! They get along pretty well I see.