Rating: 
Summary: Bleak but exquisite
Review: Having seen exhibits of Vermeer's work, I was floored by the perfection of the art direction and cinematography that recreated his luminous interiors and portraits for this film. The camera's gaze has never before lingered so lovingly on a pair of eyes and lips illuminated by a shaft of light from a slightly dingy window. But the brilliant surface belies repressive and treacherous domestic circumstances which entrap the young servant whose portrait becomes a timeless masterpiece. It is not only the servant, but indeed Vermeer's entire household, who are but "flies in the web" of Vermeer's wealthy patron. The gritty depiction of class oppression and domestic abuse are mitigated only slightly by the spark of a connection between Vermeer and the servant girl, who has an innate appreciation of art, and in another century may well have been a painter herself. I respect the film for not trying to be too uplifting, and instead focusing on the fact that great art transcends our pitiable human condition.
Rating: 
Summary: Like watching a painting dry
Review: This is a really beautifully filmed movie. It is also very slow going.In a nutshell, a household maid becomes subject of the 17th-century title painting. There are a couple of love-triangles, and at one point, some heavy breathing in a clothed, standing position. Not much more to it than that, and it stretches out for 100 minutes. The movie is short on dialogue and big on gazes, looks, and camera movement. I like Scarlett, but there was not much material for her to work with in this movie. The others are mostly forgettable. The extras include a good behind-the-scenes "Anatomy of a Scene", and an out-of-place modern music video with Scarlett and a male musician who I don't recognize.
Rating: 
Summary: I would have given this five stars, if I hadn't read the boo
Review: This movie was the most visually beutifull movie I have ever seen, but maybe it's just me, the things that made the book such a joy were to my dismay, changed for the movie. The opening scene with Griet grouping the ingrediants for soup, definitely should not have been left out!! Though the scene was there showing Griet, Vemeer's vital prescence was completely cut out. For me this showed the connection between between this young girl, and the mature artist, and made the connection beween the two apparent. The way Vemeer recognized in Griet a kindred spirit if you will, or just someone with the same sensibilities and eye as himself is what drove me through the book in a day and a half. Also you got the sense of his wife's unease with this young girl, seeing her as a possible threat due to the fact she seems to share his artistic eye. This is an area that she has been virtually shut out of, the vital realm of his art, the thing most important thing to him. I saw that as the ultimate threat that Griet posed to the wife not the seeming sexual, sensual threat. The thought that this lowly girl was connecting with Vemeer's mind and his eyes was I thought the crucial point of conflict or tension. Maybe it would have been to difficult to portray something that was solely in their minds, so the filmmakers choose to make it more of a physical thing. I guess we have been reduced to an audiance unable to pickup on the mental without bringing up the physical. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK, PLEASE DO, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! Over all this was and excelent movie I just was disappointed that the story was reduced to having to hit you over the head with a hammer to portray what was easily displayed in the book with less overt action.
Rating: 
Summary: Where are the extras??
Review: A beautiful movie, but for almost $20, I would like the extras found in the UK edition. As a matter of fact, I believe I will order that version. What was Lion's Gate thinking? Very annoying that I have to order from England what I should be able to get from here.
Rating:
Summary: A sublime portrait of tortured souls and muses, art and love
Review: Girl With A Pearl Earring, based on Tracy Chevalier's novel of the same name, chronicles the creation of one of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer's greatest paintings. Griet (the luminous Scarlett Johansson) becomes a maid at the Vermeer house after a family tragedy, and learns to adapt to the dynamics of the Vermeer household: a jealous, constantly-pregnant wife (Essie Davis, bearing a striking resemblance to Cate Blanchett's Queen Elizabeth), a shrewd mother-in-law in charge of finances and keeping Johannes' wandering in check, and a gaggle of children underfoot (one of whom hates Griet from day one and makes life miserable for her). While at the Vermeers, Griet meets Pieter, the butcher's assistant, and the two begin a slow courtship as the seasons pass. The film's main story follows Vermeer's struggle to paint (he only produced around 35 canvases his entire career) with little money for supplies and the household, an iron-fisted mother-in-law that disdains him and urges him to paint more and faster, and the frustration at being with people who do not understand his calling, the intricacies of colour, texture, light and shadow. Enter Griet, who possesses a sensitive, artistic nature and is assigned to clean Vermeer's studio. Before long she is secretly grinding and mixing paints for Vermeer in between her other household chores, and one fateful day Vermeer asks Griet to sit for him. She does so reluctantly, afraid to invoke the wrath of his wife, but Vermeer quietly forces her to bend to his will, including piercing her ears so that she can wear his wife's earrings for the painting. Griet is found out, and all hell breaks loose. The film's finest moment is when Griet poses for the infamous painting, a haunted look in her liquid eyes. "You have looked inside me," she accuses Vermeer. There is a great deal of unrealized sexual tension between maid and master, the smallest movement an expression of unspoken desire: the accidental brush of a hand, a thumb's caress as an earring is put in, the furtive glimpse of Griet's hair that entrances Johannes. One of Vermeer's regular patrons lusts after Griet and attempts to rape her, leaving Vermeer angry but helpless to turn down the commission. This is a gorgeous film, lushly sensual and full of moments of quiet beauty. Each scene is composed as though a Vermeer painting, careful studies in placement, colour, and light. Colin Firth plays a superbly tortured soul seeking his muse, and Scarlett Johansson is radiant as the timid, blossoming Griet, tantalized by that which she can never have. Slow to unfold but deliciously rewarding, and one of the best films of the last few years.
Rating:
Summary: What a ripoff!
Review: This gorgeous movie is being released here in North America with minimal extras instead of all the bonus features the UK version is getting. Lion's Gate, what were you thinking? What a disappointment. I'm afraid I'll have to give this one a pass.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgivable
Review: It appears that this delicious movie, made from the wonderful book, is being released as a DVD in the US (Region 1) with only the Director's Commentary and the widely seen Anatomy of a Scene. If you live in the UK (or otherwise outside of Region 1) in addition to those, you will also get: - Writers Commentary
- Making Of Featurette
- Deleted Scenes
- UK Theatrical Trailer What's up with that? Much as I love it, I will not buy it.
Rating:
Summary: A picture is worth a thousand words.
Review: The beautiful setting is mesmerizing in this film. When the actors move around it's as if you're looking into a painting. Colin Firth makes for a smoldering Vermeer. His eyes and hands speak volumes.
Rating:
Summary: Never read the book, don't feel the need
Review: Even though this movie is based on a fictional account, I found "Girl with an Earring" fascinating movie. If for nothing else, one should 'study' this film for its gorgeous play of light and shadows to create that picturesque setting which was uniquely 17th century Dutch, and which defined Vermeer as one of the greats of his era. However, what defined this movie for me was the ending. Some reviewers complain that it was vastly underrated, especially compared to the twisted and dramatic finish of the book from which this movie is based on, but I found it rather suitable when, soon after, the movie comes to a complete end with a still of the painting itself. For me, it was as if the movie was saying: "take a look, and tell me how betrayed she must have felt when she got the earrings; and glean from that how warm and full of hope she must have felt while she was sitting for the painting itself." perhaps others may interpret it different, but, after the 90 min movie, my perception of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" was both completed and reinforced - a girl full of hope for the future, represented in subtle eloquence with a single earring. It was one of the few movies for which I did not regret my time.
Rating: 
Summary: A movie that truly demonstrates artistic inspiration.
Review: Although getting too real a feeling for the depressing life of Griet is not desirable, this movie is the first I've ever seen that manages to give the viewer a closeup look at what it is like to have "an eye for art" and depicts artistic inspiration very well. That is what one should focus on when watching. I found the details about the mixing of paint from raw materials fascinating and the director's use of light and shadow is almost as skilled as the painter Vermeer, whose life is the movie's subject. The underlying sexual/intellectual (?) attraction of the main characters is nicely handled, just enough sensuality yet, rather satisfyingly, never permitted to reach the expected conclusion. One of the more worthwhile movies I've seen in years.
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