Even Milos Forman's most ardent supporters are sure to have mixed feelings about "Goya's Ghosts". As expected from the Oscar-winning director of "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", the production values are strong and the performances solid. Unfortunately, his fictional take on the life of subversive painter Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgård), circa the Spanish Inquisition, feels undercooked compared to previous issue-driven works, like "The People vs. Larry Flynt". As in that film, censorship and hypocrisy take center stage. Co-written by Luis Buñuel scenarist Jean-Claude Carrière ("That Obscure Object of Desire"), "Goya's Ghosts" concerns the painter's relationships with two subjects, Brother Lorenzo (Javier Bardem) and artist’s model Ines (Natalie Portman). When Ines is suspected of practicing Judaism, she's tortured until she confesses, leading to her incarceration. With Goya's assistance, her family enlists Lorenzo to fight for her freedom, but to no avail. For his own transgressions, Lorenzo flees the country, while Ines lingers in prison. The story then skips ahead 15 years. Goya has since lost his hearing, Ines remains imprisoned, and a defrocked Lorenzo is living a life of leisure in France. After Napoleon invades Spain, the three are once again thrown into each other's orbit. Of the trio, Goya emerges as decency incarnate, Ines as a victim of religious fundamentalism, and Lorenzo as a man who found his conscience far too late to save anyone--least of all himself. The humor that bouyed "Amadeus" might not have been appropriate in this case, but "Goya's Ghosts" is a real downer. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"