The Best Offer movie still
The Best Offer movie poster

The Best Offer (2013)

Crime, Drama, Mystery

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Writer: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks, Donald Sutherland


"What's it like living with a woman?"

Director Giuseppe Tornatore (known from Malèna and Cinema Paradiso) delivers with The Best Offer an intriguing masterpiece with a very surprising ending.

Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush) is an eccentric auctioneer who is considered one of the best in the field. He is also an art expert who is able to see if a painting is authentic and who regularly receives requests for setting up auctions worldwide. At one point he receives a phone call from a solitary young heiress Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks) who wants to auction off the property and the large art collection of her deceased parents and the two schedule an appointment in the family home. The first meeting is postponed in the last moment, the moment where the movie really starts. He becomes obsessed with this mysterious woman and wants to find out who she really is. It is a quest in which he not only wants to expose her, but also will have sides of exposing himself.

He wants to pull the woman out of her shell, but because he has no experience with women he knocks on a young restaurateur who does have that experience. The story reminds us of old Hitchcock movies where a number of elements put the viewer regularly on the wrong foot.

The Best Offer shows that a story about an auctioneer does not need to be boring and therefore it's has it's place in everyones good movies list.

Plot summary from IMDb: In the world of high-end art auctions and antiques, Virgil Oldman is an elderly and esteemed but eccentric genius art-expert, known and appreciated by the world. Oldman is hired by a solitary young heiress, Claire Ibbetson, to auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her parents. For some reason, Claire always refuses to be seen in person. Robert aids Oldman in restoring and reassembling some odd mechanical parts he finds amongst Claire's belongings, while also giving him advice on how to befriend her and deal with his feelings towards her. Also a friend of Oldman, Billy Whistler helps him to acquire a secret private collection of master paintings.


Awards: 18 wins & 21 nominations.
Runtime: 131 min
R

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