If there were a guide to decoding movies, rule No. 1 might be:
If a main character is a con artist, look for him to get conned
by someone else.  I'm not saying that has anything to do with
"The Best Offer," which stars Geoffrey Rush as a con artist who,
working with a friend (Donald Sutherland), bilks people out of
valuable paintings. Claiming the paintings are worthless, Rush
buys them for cheap and adds them to his own, specialized
collection. Housed in a secret room in his home is an enormous
gallery where he sits alone, gazing at his portraits of
beautiful women throughout history. A classic loner, he is
yanked out of his solitude when a young, wealthy woman who
refuses to show her face asks him to evaluate some art.  I'm not
saying you will know exactly where that plot is headed from the
get-go but I will say that "The Best Offer," from director
Giuseppe Tornatore ("Cinema Paradiso") is marred by stiff, over-
explanatory dialogue. The problem, I'd guess, is that native
Italian speaker Tornatore wrote it i