The Best Offer (2013)

You may have seen this described as an Italian film. That's a little misleading: None of the major actors are Italian, all the original dialog is in English, and it wasn't obvious to me that most of the story took place in Italy. But in a subtle way, the Italianness still matters.

Virgil (Geoffrey Rush), a world-class auctioneer specializing in paintings and antiques, is prone to superstition and unfriendliness. This may explain why he takes interest in one client, Claire (Sylvia Hoeks), who begs him to break from his routine and pay house calls -- er, mansion calls -- to assess her inherited property, on the grounds that she hasn't allowed anyone to see her in 12 years. She's not deformed; she just stopped wanting to be seen, even by a doctor in an emergency. Virgil turns to his craftsman associate, Robert (Jim Sturgess), for advice on how to get her to open up to him.