There's an echo of Philomena about this emotionally rich story in which a passionate younger man challenges the injustice visited on an older woman in her distant past.

The comparison rests in the thematic arc more so than the narrative which brings together Nazi's, art-theft, the holocaust, Gustav Klimt and the US Supreme Court. Throw in an all-star cast led by Helen Mirren, it is a wonder how Woman In Gold could be so, well, lacklustre.

Decades after the war, Maria Altmann (Mirren - The Queen), a headstrong Austrian immigrant, engages LA lawyer Randal Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds - Buried) to help regain ownership of a family painting stolen by Nazis. In the 1900's, Klimt had been commissioned to paint a portrait of Maria's Aunt Adele which found its way to Vienna's Belvedere museum. Now worth millions, they're were not giving it up without a fight despite its unfortunate past. 'This is not about money', argues the Belvedere, 'it's about heritage'.

“This is not about money,” said Maria, “it's about memory, and family”. That story – her lineage, the war, their flight to America – is told in flashback while the courtroom drama proceeds in the present. Riveting stuff.

Or it would be if not for Alexi Campbell's cloying script and surprisingly leaden direction by Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn). Adapting the memoir by Schoenberg (grandson of the Austrian composer), all the elements of a scintillating feature are present yet this lands like a mid-budget tele-movie. Tourist Vienna is pretty, Mirren is engaging and Reynolds perfectly watchable although Daniel Brühl and Katie Holmes are given thankless roles in support. Together they manage to coax one laboured scene after another toward the finish line where any remaining sympathy for the film then withers in a cloying, misguided coda.

It is a disappointing result when you consider the gathered talent, the iconic painting and one woman's extraordinary fight for justice. But wrapped in such awkward sentiment this lacks the emotional heft that gave Philomena what it took to reach our hearts. The Woman In Gold only reaches our heads.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on 18 May 2015