The acting and production values are of the highest order in "Goya's Ghost". Because I don't get around much anymore, I had not seen Ms Portman in a movie until "Ghost", and was very impressed, for like all the roles in this movie, her's was challenging. Javier Bardem is tough to equal in any movie, and as the 'heavy', (another heavy?!) he is outstanding; Stellan Skarsgård has come a long, long ways since "The Ox", and he has had a mixture of roles, some of them pretty thankless. As Goya, he does very well--a great actor. Natalie Portman--as I was a first timer regards seeing her work, I was bowled over--her role requires a terrible transformation, and makeup only goes so far, acting must be the key ingredient. So, along with the outstanding set designs and production values, Forman created another outstanding period piece. By the way, the actress Blanca Portillo who does the Spanish queen has a key small part--and you'll know her best scene when you see it! The story? It is about a wretched time and wretched people in a position of trust who violate that and prey on whomever they can. I think "Ghost" might not be for those who are not really into period pieces, but I am!

Goya's Ghosts is an appealing blend of creative fiction and history. It's the story of young Ines (Portman) and the consequences she endures for refusing to eat pig at the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Who knew someone's life could be turned upside down for not eating a roasted animal? It's also about horny Brother Lorenzo (Bardem). Or was he horny? Only a DNA test can tell us for sure, because years later, when Ines's child shows up, the screenwriters (Forman and Carriere) cleverly make the young woman look like her mother, not her father.And then there's Spanish print maker, romantic painter/painter to royalty, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Skarsgard). Interwoven into the story, Goya is so caught up in the thick of things that his desire to help and stabilize people becomes the backbone of this well-told drama.Who wins, who loses at the end? Watch and find out. It's a neat ending.For sure, Goya's etchings are the ghosts. The only way he could be social commentator during the time he lived was through his etchings. And through his etchings he could ridicule the corrupt and demented ways of society. Forman and Carriere take Goya's Ghosts and creatively present a story told in words and celluloid. I think Goya would be proud.

the makers of motion pictures told stories that appealed to the mind as well as the heart. 'Goya's Ghosts' is such a movie. Think about the film for a moment... it was the story of a young woman and a priest... told through the surrounding tapestry of the life of an artist. The visual portion of the movie was as richly painted and presented as some of Goya's finest and most provocative canvases. The colors, the juxtaposition of light and shadow, the close-ups, and the fleeting glimpses of artists works combined into a sensual feast for the eye. And the story was just as complex, just as beautiful, and edited as only an editor passionately attached to a work can edit. The music was hauntingly and precisely joined to the scenes and the screenplay. And the story itself was wonderfully thought-provoking... the principals' rise, fall, rise again, fall once more... a once beautiful young girl spends the final frames following the man who least deserves her heart... and we are left with a question, an enormous question, regarding the blacks and whites we love to paint reality & our issues with. I do not judge the movies that are produced today. Each has its audience. I simply wish that more movies as truly wonderful as this one were produced and released. "Goya's Ghosts" is a finely crafted and beautifully presented story to watch unfold.

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.