The Best Offer

The film tells a story of love and deceit, set in Europe - in the world of ultra high-end art auctions and antiques. The story revolves around Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush), an ageing, wealthy, and esteemed, but somewhat standoffish and eccentric, managing director of a preeminent auction house. Oldman is hired by a mysterious young heiress, Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks), to auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her parents. Claire always refuses to be seen in person, suffering from severe agoraphobia and never leaving her room. She decided to trust Oldman though as he suffers himself from OCD. Soon enough Virgil, a lifelong bachelor who is able to relate to her reclusiveness, understands that he has fallen in love with her.

An astute young artisan, Robert (Jim Sturgess), who has a shop repairing and restoring clocks, aids Oldman in restoring and reassembling some odd mechanical parts that he finds among Claire's belongings, which appear to be from a potentially valuable historic automaton, while also giving him advice on how to befriend her, and how to deal with his feelings towards her. Oldman's poise and prestige are counterpointed by an ongoing scam whereby his friend Billy Whistler (Donald Sutherland) helps him acquire a large private collection of master portraits worth many millions, by presenting them at auction as the work of other artists. Billy is an aspiring artist himself, but Oldman does not take Billy's work seriously.

A side narrative involves Virgil discovering a mouldy, charred piece of wood at another client's mansion. Professional restoration reveals a painting underneath which Virgil falsely states is by a 16th-century forger who, unable to reveal herself as female, simply signs paintings as "V." Virgil notes to these other clients that all forgers are irresistibly tempted to modify the original, which reveals the forger's own artistic sensibilities. At auction, the painting is sold for £90,000, but after Virgil explains to Billy he knew that it was, in fact, an original worth some £8 million, Billy buys the painting for Virgil from its original buyer for £250,000.

Oldman eventually begins a relationship with Ibbetson, compromising his work. At the peak of the relationship, Claire overcomes her fear of the outside world and Virgil lays aside his gloves. Claire goes on to live with Virgil, who trusts the fragile Claire enough to show her his secret priceless collection of female portraits. Overcome with emotion, Claire tells Virgil that no matter what may happen to the two of them, she does love him.

Virgil returns home one day to find that his entire collection and Claire are gone. In the vault is the completed automaton constructed from the mechanical parts Virgil gave to Robert, which plays a message from Robert saying there is something real in every forgery and that is why Robert will truly miss Virgil. He also discovers that a supposed portrait of Claire's mother was in fact painted by Billy and has been left to him with a telling inscription. Virgil realizes that he is the victim of an elaborate fraud conducted by Robert, Claire, and Billy, but is unable to go to the police due to the illicit means by which Virgil himself acquired the works. He also discovers that the real "Claire," owner of the villa and its contents, is a young savant, disabled and confined to a wheelchair, who has been watching him visit the villa on numerous occasions from a café across the street in which Virgil has himself spent time. She reveals that she has hired the villa out to some film directors for this whole event to be staged, and has seen the supposedly agoraphobic, fake "Claire" come and go from the villa hundreds of times.

We (the audience) are not told explicitly who is behind the "sting" or scam, but at one prior point Claire, unaware that she is being observed by Virgil, talks to someone on the phone who she calls the "Director;" if this is Billy, a possible motive is that he too is an artist but has never received any encouragement or appreciation from Virgil, and the sting is an act of revenge on his part. An alternative suggestion by some viewers is that Billy, and possibly Robert, wish to draw Virgil out of his previous life in which he had little real contact or empathy with other humans, and the loss of his possessions may be a price he has to pay to gain the insights he has hitherto avoided.

After months of recovering from the betrayal in a mental institution, Virgil takes a trip to Prague, where he spends time sitting in a restaurant that Claire had once suggested. The restaurant is filled with clocks, perhaps a reminder of his OCD or perhaps a metaphor for his own life ticking by. He sits there waiting alone at a table wondering if Claire's statement of love was forged or a genuine sentiment she imparted on the con.

• Geoffrey Rush as Virgil Oldman, prestigious auctioneer
• Jim Sturgess as Robert, tinkerer and mechanical repairman
• Sylvia Hoeks as Claire Ibbetson, reclusive heiress
• Donald Sutherland as Billy Whistler, artist; friend of Virgil who helps him at auctions
• Philip Jackson as Fred, caretaker of the Ibbetson mansion
• Katie McGovern as art expert
• Dermot Crowley as Lambert (Virgil's main assistant)
• Liya Kebede as Sarah, Robert's girlfriend
• Maximilian Dirr as Virgil's twink
• Laurence Belgrave as Virgil's Assistant
• Sean Buchanan as Virgil's Assistant
• Kiruna Stamell as Claire, woman in the bar who keeps count of things
• Anton Alexander as Real Estate Agent
• John Benfield as Barman
• Miles Richardson as Steirereck Maitre
• James Patrick Conway as Steirereck Manager
• Brigitte Christensen as First Daughter

The film was produced by Paco Cinematografica with support from the FVG (Friuli Venezia Giulia) Film Fund. Filming began in Trieste on April 30, 2012. For Tornatore this meant a return to Trieste: it was here he shot La Sconosciuta in 2005, with Xenia Rappoport. Filming took place in a period of five to six weeks in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Vienna, Prague, and South Tyrol.[4]

• Official website (in Italian)
• The Best Offer at IMDb
• The Best Offer at the TCM Movie Database
• The Best Offer at AllMovie
• The Best Offer at Rotten Tomatoes