Goya's Ghosts

That's the title of a DVD I just finished.

Picture "Les Miserables" meets the Spanish Inquisition.

Doesn't sound like too much fun, does it?

Perhaps a run-down of some of the primary cast members will change your mind:

- Stellan Skarsgard (better known from "The Pirates of the Caribbean") plays the iconic Spanish painter Francisco Goya.

- Natalie Portman (who was awesome as Anne Boleyn in a previously-reviewed DVD) is Goya's gorgeous muse Ines--but be forewarned, she becomes an old hag after spending a decade and a half in a dungeon.

- Javier Bardem (evil incarnate in "No Country for Old Men") plays a wayward priest turned revolutionary named Lorenzo who fathers a child with Ines while she is in prison.

- Randy Quaid plays--hold on to your seats--the King of Spain! (He's come a long way since those National Lampoon roles.)

Left me wondering how much of this story was true, and how much was dramatic license . . . I guess one would call that "thought provoking." I suppose that's a refreshing thing when you consider the sorts of response a lot of films provoke . . .