Griet (Johansson) is a peasant girl who is forced to work as a maid in the home of the painter Johannes Vermeer (Firth). She eventually becomes the model for what becomes one of his most famous works. Based on Tracy Chevalier's novel. [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

Patience is a rarity in modern cinema, as is subtlety and quietness. Watching “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” one feels as if he is seeing something from another time and place, not the hustle and bustle of 2004 but rather from the 1970’s, when cinema’s finest artists were willing to take their time in telling their tales.

The film’s closing shot, an elegant pan out from the painting on which the film is based, painted in about 1665 by Johannes Vermeer, suddenly draws the threads of the story together. In this instant, we are forced to look at a painting as we rarely have – examining the curves, the expression, the eyes, the mouth We are searching for meaning in this girl’s face; some clue as to what the artist or the subject felt.

“Girl With a Pearl Earring,” the painting, is one of those works that has always generated buzz. Much like the “Mona Lisa,” people wonder about those involved and about some intangible, lingering, unmistakable power the piece possesses. There is more at work here than a woman, head turned to the side, smiling. There is something more we can sense, even if we can’t assign it a label.

And with this final masterpiece engulfing the screen, director Peter Webber’s approach to the remainder of the film comes full circle. He has created a story that mimics the painting, tantalizing us, inviting us and intriguing us for the exact same reasons. On the surface, it is a simple, standard drama. But in its nuances, expressions, silences and subtlety, there is a wealth of depth and mystery.

So many other filmmakers would have overdone this. They would have taken the painter, Vermeer (Colin Firth), the subject, who has never been identified, Vermeer’s household, which was apparently dominated by a suspicious wife and a dominating mother-in-law, and would have created a seething melodrama. There would have been lustful glances, torrid romance, shocking betrayals, but absolutely no substance.

What Webber has done is taken the material so many others would have used to create a trifle and has created an extravagant, five-course meal. The catch, however, is that one accustomed to Big Macs in seconds must find the patience to wait for course number four.

“Girl With a Pearl Earring” is brilliant exactly because it doesn’t pretend to give all the answers. Who was the subject? According to the movie it was Griet, a servant. Was the painting capturing something magical in the air? Almost certainly. What exactly was it? Now there’s the question this film should never attempt to answer and, thankfully, it doesn’t.

Griet (Scarlett Johansson) comes to work at Vermeer’s household because she has to. She is poor and needs the money. She is immediately scorned by Vermeer’s wife (Essie Davis), who is inherently suspicious of a young, attractive girl around the house. Griet is charged with cleaning Vermeer’s studio, and her fascination, appreciation and attraction to his art is immediate.

Vermeer and Griet bond, if you can call it that, as she helps him prepare his paints, enjoying the tedious task of mixing the colors. And then due to a financial crunch, Vermeer is forced into the position of fulfilling the will of a patron, Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson). Ruijven is a sketchy individual, at one point nearly raping Griet in a shocking, violent scene, but when he commissions a painting from Vermeer with Griet as the subject, the concerns of Vermeer’s wife and mother-in-law come second to their desire to make a quick buck.

So they endorse the project, allow Vermeer and Griet to work closely with one another and somewhere in that room, all of their past exchanges, glances and silences culminate in a kinetic acknowledgment of the other.

Webber does not dare to say that all ended well, and does not push the envelope in creating a scenario that defies all laws of plausibility. He is wise enough to respect what made the art work magical in the first place – a palpable capturing of the unspeakable.

And he then recreates a scenario in which this surreal connection is allowed to play out, the silences screaming out with potency and the simple glances carrying more weight than a Shakespearean soliloquy.

Some movies could work as audio books. This one, appropriately, must be seen to be believed.





Check out Reviews, Commentary, and More at Zertinet.com

 

MOVIE WEB PAGE

LINKS TO REVIEWS
Roger Ebert
NY Times

IMDB WEB PAGE

MOVIE REVIEW QUERY ENGINE

Showtimes

DAVID JOHNSON'S REVIEW

Movies @ Zertinet | Oscars @ Zertinet | Main Site
IMDB | Moviefone | Movie Review Query Engine
Contact Us | Subscribe | Unsubscribe

Best Viewed at 800 X 600 or greater
Design by David Johnson