It could be expected that this would turn out a pretty delicate movie, after all, how can you explain the story behind such a delicate painting? It would also be expected that this movie was made with the craftness of such paintings, but really, not at this level. With the tender touch of art, this slowly paced journey into the feel of 17th-century Holland is as delighting for the senses as it is for the eyes. You could almost smell the varnish. The story is surprisingly minimal, the dialogue even more. But they're fit for such a work. But even if the story or the actors are not jaw-dropping (they're all adequate and solid in their roles), the way the film is shot really is. It's like the movie was drawn on a canvas. The man responsible, Eduardo Serra, is as essential to the movie as any of the major players. Many scenes look intentionally like real paintings, and it's that feeling of looking into a work from Vermeer or Rembrandt - the only way we picture this century, after all - that gives it its sheer brilliance and grasp. But of course, such a story has also great poignancy, specially on the way the relations between the characters happen (all that innuendo between Vermeer and Griet is incredible). A movie of rarely-seen craft, that is a faithful hommage to the painting around which it revolves.
Review of Girl with a Pearl Earring
