''Georgetown'' is a 2019 American

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

film directed by Christoph Waltz (in his feature directorial debut) and written by David Auburn. It is based on Franklin Foer's 2012 ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...

'' article "The Worst Marriage in Georgetown", which details the 2011 murder of 91-year-old socialite Viola Herms Drath by her much-younger second husband in the Georgetown neighborhood of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Waltz stars alongside

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress. In her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered List of awards and nominations received by Vanessa Redgrave, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony A ...

Annette Bening Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. With a career spanning over four decades, she is known for List of Annette Bening performances, her versatile work across screen and stage. Bening has received List of awards an ...

and Corey Hawkins. It had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

on April 27, 2019. It received a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the United States on May 14, 2021, by Vertical Entertainment.

Plot

The film opens with an on-screen disclaimer: The plot is based on and is a fictionalized account of the 2011 murder of Viola Herms Drath by her husband Albrecht Gero Muth. In the movie, Ulrich Mott, an ambitious, grandiose, and dishonest social climber becomes the main suspect in the death of his wealthy and much older wife, Elsa Breht.

Cast

* Christoph Waltz as Ulrich Mott (based upon the real-life murderer Albrecht Gero Muth) *

as Elsa Breht (based upon the real-life socialite Viola Herms Drath) *

as Amanda Breht * Corey Hawkins as Daniel Volker * Laura de Carteret as Eleanor Price * Saad Suddiqui as Zahari *

Ron Lea Ron Lea is a Canadian actor, who has had roles in '' Wind at My Back'' (1997–2000), '' Doc'', '' Street Legal'', '' This is Wonderland'', '' Victor'' (2008), ''Flashpoint'' (2009), ''Good Witch'' (2015), and ''The Strain'' (2015). Early lif ...

as Detective Reid * Alexander Crowther as Matthew

Production

It was announced in May 2015 that Christoph Waltz would make his feature directorial debut with ''The Worst Marriage in Georgetown'', in which he would also star as the main character Ulrich Mott. In May 2017,

was cast in the film, now titled ''Georgetown'', as the wealthy socialite Mott marries in order to up his social status.

joined the film in September, with filming commencing in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

between August 3 and September 16, 2017.

Release

It had its world premiere at the

on April 27, 2019. Its earliest theatrical release was in Italy on June 16, 2020. It was released in the United States on May 14, 2021, in a

by Vertical Entertainment. It was released on

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

on May 18, 2021, by

Paramount Home Entertainment Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, originally Paramount Home Video, and operating as the namesake film studio since 2022) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures. The division oversees Para ...

Reception

Box office

''Georgetown'' grossed $2,132 in Italy.

Critical response

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Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it holds a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on eight critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. John DeFore of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised the film, noting that "it's the kind of serious but broadly appealing, modestly scaled picture that people love to say doesn't exist any more." In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Calum Marsh praised Waltz's performance, saying that "he is a pleasure to watch."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Georgetown 2019 films 2019 crime drama films 2019 directorial debut films 2010s American films 2010s English-language films American crime drama films American films based on actual events American nonlinear narrative films Crime drama films based on actual events English-language crime drama films Films about uxoricide Films based on newspaper and magazine articles Films scored by Lorne Balfe Films set in Washington, D.C. Films shot in Toronto Vertical (film company) films