'Goya's Ghosts' doesn't hit the mark

Painful though it may be, Milos Forman's “Goya's Ghosts” must be consigned to that regrettable scrapheap of can't-miss projects that manages, quite spectacularly, to miss.

The cast, including Javier Bardem (“Before Night Falls”), Natalie Portman (“V for Vendetta”) and briny “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor Stellan Skarsgard, is aces. So, too, is Forman's cosmetic visualization of decadence and degradation in Napoleonic Europe. And don't forget the film's greatest asset: Forman himself, the director of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (1975) and other lively tributes to skewed artistic vision (“Amadeus,” “Man on the Moon,” and, ahem, “The People vs. Larry Flint”).

Despite its pedigree and promising conception, “Goya's Ghosts” is a mutt. Co-written by Forman and Jean-Claude Carriere (“Summersby”), the film begins in late 18th century Spain, where the country's Chief Inquisitor (Michael Lonsdale) has convened his staff. Sadly, the Inquisition is not going well. Only eight executions in the last 50 years! And a maverick artist named Francisco Goya (Skarsgard) is gaining worldwide fame for his beastly etchings of Catholic cruelty and corruption.

“We must return to the old, God-fearing ways!” proclaims the ambitious, if secretly insincere, Brother Lorenzo (Bardem).

Keeping his enemy close, Lorenzo commissions a portrait from Goya, a creative force so prolific that he keeps a ready stable of “ghosts” - faceless portraits that he can fill in later for less well-heeled clients. In Goya's studio, Lorenzo spots a portrait of Ines (Portman), a beautiful merchant's daughter and one of the artist's favorite models.

The motivations get a bit sketchy at this point, but Ines is seized by the Inquisition under the trumped-up charge of practicing-Jew-ritual (she doesn't like pork, so you do the math) and “put to the question” (Portman seems to be developing a Mel Gibson-style fondness for torture scenes). And then, well, things get crazy. Ines is raped, revenge is meted out, 15 years pass, the French invade, Goya goes deaf, Lorenzo does the Edmond Dantes thing and Portman - playing both Ines and her long-lost daughter - is fitted with a pair of Jim Varney buckteeth.

The upshot: Forman has created a tawdry period fiction that unfolds with all the elegance and thematic discipline of a hand grenade. And no one catches more shrapnel than Skarsgard, thanklessly demoted to the role of ineffectual observer. Those faceless portraits aren't just there for show; they're his destiny, the artist as space filler. Even Larry Flint fared better

‘Goya's Ghosts'

Stars: Stellan Skarsgard, Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman

Behind the scenes: Directed by Milos Forman, from a script by Forman and Jean-Claude Carriere

Rating: R for violence, disturbing images, some sexual content and nudity

Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes

Grade: C-