CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

SnoopyStyle It's 1792 Madrid. The Inquisition is interested in painter Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgård)'s provocative art. Luckily for him, brother Lorenzo Casamares (Javier Bardem) is his supportive patron. Inés Bilbatúa (Natalie Portman) is brought into the Inquisition for not eating pork. She is accused of being a Judaiser and put into a stress position called The Question. Her rich merchant father asks Goya to invite Lorenzo for dinner. He in turn puts Lorenzo into The Question to coerce an outlandish confession. He blackmails Lorenzo to help get Inés released.The first hour is terrific. It has dark and tense turns. The characters are great. It builds up a compelling drama. The first problem starts with the family letting Goya leave as they torture Lorenzo. He could easily have gone to the authorities. It's a small logic break but then the story expands in scope and out of shape. This could have been a great movie if it stayed small. Milos Forman goes crazy and then the French invades. The second half is more convoluted and there are too many convenient turns. By way of explaining, I almost half-believed in this as a real Goya story. Granted, I don't know anything about the artist but these characters seem real enough. By the second half, there is no chance that this is anywhere near reality. This is half of a great movie.

chad parlett (ctelrap) I would not have appreciated this film so much if I had not been to the Prado (Art Museum) in Madrid. Goya's paintings and drawings of the horrors of war, and the Inquisition, are vividly displayed there. The integration of Goya's art and vision within the film itself is masterful. Add to that excellent costumes, cinematography ,and direction by Milos Foreman; plus incredible pre Oscar performances by Bardem and Portman,and you have a masterpiece worthy of Goya himself. Historically accurate, with a few minor flaws, the film resonates within the soul of the viewer and stands along such great epics of injustice as Schindler's List, and The Pianist.

ozjeppe Spain in the 1790s: merchant daughter (Portman)- and famous painter Goya's (Skarsgård) muse - is preposterously arrested and imprisoned by the Spanish catholic church's infamous inquisition. Her family, with Goya's aid, desperately tries to free her and has to go head-to-head with two-faced monk Bardem.For being a most awaited Milos Forman drama piece, and despite an important historical lesson plus some powerful scenes, this is a truly strange concoction as it changes focus and tone countless times, sometimes bordering on laughable as the odd casting of Skarsgård and the double roles (and make-up) of Portman campily keep distracting its plot. I have no idea if the story bears any relation to Goya's real life... but if not, it's a most important detail: his sidekick-like presence here feels totally superfluous to propel this potentially strong tale. Therefore even the title feels misplaced!Oh well, 5 out of 10 from Ozjeppe

jonathanruano When I saw "Goya's Ghosts," I concluded that it was a movie about nothing. To be sure, Milos Forman's direction was expert. The performances were good, especially those of Javier Bardem (as Father Lorenzo) and Stellan Skarsgard (as Francisco Goya). The sets were beautiful. But can one point to a unifying thread in this film? Not really. In the beginning, "Goya's Ghosts" appears to be a movie about the Spanish Inquisition, but half way through it switches gears completely. We are treated to a French invasion (which is eerily similar to the current Iraq War, if you watch carefully the language some of the French officers are using), French atrocities, Goya's reunion with Inez, prostitutes, the British invasion and then the Spanish Inquisition all over again. In the final scene, we witness a wretched mad woman Inez (played by Natalie Portman)carrying a baby and following corpse of Lorenzo stretched out on a cart pulled by a donkey, while ironically cheerful Spanish music is played in the background.So what was the point of this movie? A mystery, but perhaps the answer lies in the opening scene, when we see Lorenzo and other members of the Spanish Inquisition looking over Goya's etchings. "Goya's Ghosts" is not about anything in particular, unless you want to point to very broad themes. Rather, it is a depiction of Spanish life in all its diversity during the late 18th and early 19th century, as seen through the works of Goya. "Goya's Ghosts" are not pretty. They are ugly, absurd, irrational, and downright annoying. The trials and tribulations that these ghosts go through are neverending and no one ever gets closure and certainly no poetic justice. The problems of today will become the problems of tomorrow. But perhaps that's life back then. People live lives without purpose or resolution and then they die. They never find solutions to the big problems of the day. People suffer without finding a way to alleviate the suffering. People are frustrated repeated by others, because the people back then (like those of today) are blind to their own faults or simply too selfish to care about others. Certainly, Goya (in this film) felt that sense of frustration. So in his depiction of Spanish life, Milos Forman does achieve something significant; but it is not the kind of film that people, who are accustomed to stories, are likely to appreciate.