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All Movie Info
Starring:
Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy, Joanna Scanlan, Alakina Mann, Rollo Weeks, Anna Popplewell, Chris McHallem, Essie Davis, Essie Davis, Gabrielle Reidy, Melanie Meyfroid, Nathan Nepper, Anaïs Nepper
Directed By:
Peter Webber
Written By:
Olivia Hetreed
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Girl with a Pearl Earring (2004)
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Movie Review by Bobby B
January 30th, 2008
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Turning the Sun Into a Yellow Spot
Scarlett Johansson is luminous. She has exquisite bone structure, a luscious mouth and amazing eyes that take in everything and shine their own unique color. We probably have no other young actor working in film today who can match her raw charisma. Like the most classic of movie stars, she seems to glow from within. Though this charisma is not, in and of itself, great acting it is a good place to start. The marvel of Johansson is that she has the talent to become a great actor. She has a light touch, an economy of effort in her work that usually comes with age and she's only nineteen. That's insane. Pay attention. Already a star, Johansson is on her way to much more.
In GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING Johansson plays Griet, the new maid to painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) and the subject of the painting of the title. Johansson's beauty has that other worldly quality that would provide a muse to a great artist. It is perfect casting. In this film, however, it is not enough. The film never comes together.
Why? It has good actors -- except for Colin Firth, who is almost comically miscast as the "brooding" artist Johannes Vermeer. Tom Wilkinson is wasted as the morally corrupt (and bizarrely written) patron, Van Ruijven. Essie Davis, as Vermeer's wife and Judy Parfitt, as the matron of the house, both show consummate skill. The cinematography of Eduardo Serra is quite wonderful, taking his cue for use of color from the painter in question. Each shot is lovingly constructed and beautiful to see. The subject matter -- the nature and mystery of the creative process -- has proven time and again to be rich subject matter for filmmakers. But it never works. For a film about the creative process it is astonishingly lacking in forward motion. Threads of story and sub-plot are carelessly introduced and forgotten about. There are sub-plots about one ofVermeer's (apparently) evil children, Griet's (Johansson) boring butcher boyfriend, Van Ruijven as a sexual deviant and the jealousy of Catharina (Davis) over Griet. None of these threads seem to go anywhere and they don't weave a tangled web so much as a confused knot of plotlines. Griet herself is given a brief moment where she disputes with a butcher over the quality of meat and we expect more scenes where this feistiness is explored, where it will turn into something--but nothing ever happens. Despite being an artist himself, film director Peter Webber shows no particular insight into the moments of magic that fall over each other with gathering momentum in the creation of a work of art. He is dead on to give many scenes a quiet stillness (we're talking about painting after all), but they lack the supernatural charge that keeps the cauldron of creation bubbling. Neither he nor screenwriter Olivia Hetreed show any intuitiveness about which details of the creative process to capture and distill. He's put himself behind the eight-ball by casting Firth in a part where he needs to strike off sparks with Johansson. She does her part but Firth has never been exciting in that way and he remains true to form here. By the time we get to the painting itself at the end all that's happened is the mystery of it has been made trivial, boring. And that can't happen.
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 | Lisa
Jan 30, 2008 4:44 PM
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| I haven't seen this one and based on your review I'll probably wait till it hits cable. In regards to Scarlett Johansson, I used to think she had real potential I loved her in Lost in Translation and Ghost World, but of late she seems to have given way to the more main stream hollywood crap. If you wanna see real charisma froma young actress then Ellen Page is where you need to look. |
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Jan 30, 2008 4:58 PM
Jan 30, 2008 6:05 PM