Rating: 
Summary: A Picture is Worth A 1000 Words
Review: Scarlett Johansson continues to impress me. From Ghost World to Lost In Translation she tends to hover on the outskirts of mainstream movie greatness. This film surprises you- surprises you with its goodness. Its quiet and beautiful. At first, I was skeptical. The film opens with sets and locations that look fabricated and the lighting seems artificial at best. As the film progresses, the design concept becomes clear. The film is a painting. Each scene is a portrait the cinematography is photographic- note the composition and lighting. Even the story itself is told just as much if not more through the eyes and looks than the dialogue. The sexual tension and animosity weighs on the screen like a fire blanket- but the movie doesn not drag. Each pregnant pause merely enriches the scene. You must experience this film. Sit back, and look.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Film, Outstanding Actors but Book is Better
Review: (...)I'm so glad I was able to see this during its run in theatres.I read the book (actually, I listened to the unabridged audiobook...twice) before seeing the movie and I'm so glad I did; otherwise, I fear I may have been a bit disappointed with the movie. Because I LOVE the book so much and b/c the movie is so beautiful and well-acted (Scarlett Johansson is brilliant as usual and Colin Firth can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned), I am able to forgive its flaws. It sickens me to think that Kate Hudson was originally cast to play the part of Griet in this movie - that would have been an absolute travesty. [Warning: details of the book are given away here. Only read this paragraph if you have already read the book or if you don't plan to.] Here are my complaints - which for the most part involve deviations from the book that I did not care for: 1) Griet & Vermeer should first meet during the vegetable-cutting scene; 2) Maria Thins is rather mean in the movie - in the book she is sometimes harsh, but overall I think she liked Griet; 3) I know it's necessary to cut out characters and subplots in order to make this book into a 90-something minute movie, but I wish the van Leeuwenhoek character would have been included - especially the scene where he tells Griet to remain true to herself; 4) The major disappointmet was the ending - she just runs home and Tanneke brings her the earrings?? Ugh!! The ending in the book (specifically, how she comes to receive the pearls) is much better and more emotional.
Rating: 
Summary: visually stunning, ultimately disappointing
Review: this is a gorgeous film, with a tremendous sense of time and place. the costuming, the sets and set decoration, the lighting, the composition of even minor scenes, are all superb. the acting is also superb. there is nuance in every performance, although i did keep wishing johannson would keep her mouth shut a bit more often. judy parfitt, as vermeer's mother-in-law, is wonderful. and vermeer would really have shaved and combed his hair more often than firth does. this was the 17th century, not the 21st. but the plot...oh, my, the plot. it is completely 20th (yes, 20th, not 21st) century, and middle-class suburban. it is cliched. it is anachronistic. it is BORING. the best part of the plot is vermeer's mother-in-law's efforts to keep him earning, and the lengths she is willing to go in order to preserve her family's home and status (and not from pride, but because her grandchildren need to eat and bankruptcy meant more horror that most of the movie's viewers could ever imagine). but the rest of the plot--the wife's jealousy of the servant, the lecherous patron's pursuit, the 'my-wife-doesn't-understand-my genius' nonsense, the malicious pre-teen troublemaker, the disappointed suitor--haven't all these elements been done to death, as well as being not necessarily all that true to the period? especially griet's sexual awakening and experimentation. to repeat, this was the 17th century. attitudes were very different. but it is gorgeous.
Rating: 
Summary: art history lite
Review: Everything important that happens in GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING happens on Scarlett Johansson's face. In the role of Griet, a servant girl in the home of Johannes Vermeer(Colin Firth), Johannsson gives a delicately worked out interior performance that equals if not betters her work in LOST IN TRANSLATION.
It's too bad that the movie can't keep up with her. Based on Tracy Chevalier's novel, GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING is an imagining of how the titular painting came to be. The Vermeer house is in an uproar, under constant pressure to please the artist's wealthy patron (Tom Wilkinson, hammy). Vermeer's large family seems almost entirely concerned with superficialities, while the artist, who Firth plays rather sullenly, toils away on commissions. Griet is the only one who understands the play of color and light that moves Vermeer, and Johansson beautifully gets the girl's sensual (and later sexual) awakening. Griet's character is much too obviously a modern imagining of what a 17th century house servant SHOULD have been like. By the end of the film, it seems that her nascent artistic impulses and sexuality have come to life, never mind the fact that she's poor, unemployed, and illiterate. . The "journey" Griet goes on gives the film what little dramatic shape it has -- there's much too little incident. Subplots -- Wilkinson's character's lecherous designs on Griet, Vermeer's daughter's jealousy of Griet -- are started and then forgotten about. Johansson handles everything with a beautiful light touch though, and certainly manages to be moving despite the narrowly conceived role.
Despite Johansson's work and the gorgeous costumes and cinematography, I can't quite recommend this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Film or a Piece of Art?
Review: I saw GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING last evening. I left the theater enthralled by its beauty. I felt that I had seen a major display of the Vermeer style: the scenery, the colors, the detail of everyday living at Delft in the late 1660's and, of course, the girl herself. I thought only Scarlett Johansson could have played the role. We need more films of this quality!
Rating:
Summary: Chevalier should be proud
Review: I read Tracy Chevalier's novel and fell in love with it, so I was so relieved to find the movie true to it. I have to admit I was mostly afraid that Colin Firth's wig would distract me and make me laugh the entire time, but luckily, he worked hard enough for me to believe he was a sexy Vermeer and not an actor in costume. All of the key points in plot are unchanged, though the film opens with Griet walking to her new home where she will be a maid in Vermeer's house, instead of the part where he asks her why she arranges the vegetables before she puts them in the pot. The film is perfectly non-Hollywood, Pieter's bloody hands and all. Throughout the film, the quiet connection between Griet and Vermeer is so strong, yet so subtle, with every look and movement you can see what the characters feel. All the parts are acted beautifully and nothing of great importance is left in the dust, though you will miss Griet's sister. Even though the novel's ending leaves you with the facts, there's something pleasing about the film's finish-with Griet back where she started-about to make her final decision-where to go next. Seeing the movie is like reading the book all over again, and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: nuanced yet overwrought
Review: Peter Webber's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a visual treat, using golden hues to create a soft, vintage look in both the interiors and the exteriors, the city of Delft. The cast, led by Colin Firth as the Dutch painter Vermeer, is superb. A great deal of feelings and depth is conveyed without dialogue. The viewer will be swept up by the painter so devoted to his art; his jealous, pretty wife who is burdened by many pregnancies; the innocent young girl who knows she must tread carefully in this turbulent household; the wife's mother who must shrewdly manage the business of selling the paintings. Although reviewers might use the word "subtle" to describe this visually grand film, it is also curiously overwrought and heavy, like the tantrums of the wife, and somewhat exhausting to watch. A minor criticism: the actress playing the young girl, although fresh and dewey, doesn't much resemble the girl in the real painting, whose more finely wrought features might reflect more intelligence and depth.
Rating:
Summary: Modest, well-crafted story of 17th Cent social relationships
Review: I rather liked this little movie. It's beautifully filmed, well-crafted, evokes a nice sense of time & place, has believably restrained performances by the entire cast (though Tom Wilkinson is a bit heavy-handed), and offers a plausible (if entirely conjectural) story about Vermeer and the subject of his luminous painting. Colin Firth's Vermeer is a weak householder enraptured with the new maid, Griet (Scarlett Johannson), who is not only lovely but also shares his ability to see the beauty in things. Their performances are competent, but neither is given much to work with in the screenplay. The real star performance is given by Judy Parfitt, absolutely splendid as the Machiavellian mother-in-law who keeps her daughter's jealous temper in check, while manipulating artist, patron, and servant to ensure the survival of her home and family. Though Griet is not a very forthcoming character, we have no doubt about her virtues and find it easy to sympathize with her plight as a powerless young woman anxious to avoid becoming the prey of a powerful would-be protector. The story is hardly new, but it's told fairly well in this film. Director Peter Webber is content simply to show the conditions of her life and not insult our intelligence with needless editorializing. I would give it 3 1/2 stars if possible, for I liked it's craftsmanship and Parfitt's performance very much, yet the story is slight and its aims rather modest. Still, it's significantly superior to the boring amalgamations of explosions, car chases, gunplay, irresponsible sex, sophomoric repartee, stock characters, and stale plot elements that masquerade as entertainment at most cineplexes these days. GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING is a movie made for literate adults, not for teenaged-boys challenged by anything more subtle than Quake III, and well worth at least 3 solid stars.
Rating:
Summary: Exquisite!
Review: Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel has been become a glowingly beautiful film to be enjoyed as a fine work of art. The fictional story behind Dutch master Vermeer's painting is a simple and quiet one, but Director Peter Webber has infused it with mesmerizing beauty.
Scarlett Johansson plays Griet, a young maid who comes to work in the Vermeer household, where she must contend with a jealous and temperamental mistress, a bratty child, and the mysterious artist himself. Colin Firth portrays Vermeer as a perpetually brooding, demanding, and ultimately spineless phantom who cares only for his art. Griet must also handle with diplomacy the unwelcome advances of the artist's patron, while unsure of her feelings for the attentive young butcher.
The story is slight and almost secondary to the photography here. Each frame of the movie is filmed with an emphasis on a warm, natural light source that fills each scene with a radiant glow. I found myself holding my breath while watching the film, as one does in the presence of sheer loveliness.
Johannsson is perfect as the young maid and Firth seethes with intensity. The richly detailed recreation of 17th century Delft (filmed in Luxembourg) is a feast for the eyes. The music enhances the mood of uncertainty and unspoken desire. This is a rare and wonderful film.
Rating:
Summary: The exquisitely imagined story behind the famous painting
Review: There are films about painters ("Lust for Life") and painting ("The Agony and the Ecstasy"), but it is rare to find a film about the art of painting, and that is one of the great strengths of "Girl with a Pearl Earring." The film is based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier, with a screenplay by Olivia Hetreed, that imagines a whole story behind Johannes Vermeer's painting, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (1665-66) involving the Dutch painter, his family, and the model he used for what is his most famous and most intriguing painting. Griet (Scarlett Johannson), is a young girl from a Calvinist family who has to seek employment as a maid in the Roman Catholic household of the famous painter. She is given her duties, one of which is to clean the upstairs studio, but only when the master is not busy painting. Even Vermeer's wife, Catharine (Essie Davis) will not enter that place, for reasons we will learn about later. Before she meets the artist (peter Firth), Griet sees his current painting, "Woman with a Pearl Necklace" (1664-65) and we can tell from her eyes that she is looking at something wondrous. We know that Griet is no fool, because she refuses to accept bad meat from the local butcher, which causes his son, Pieter (Cillian Murphy), to notice her. But in the house she is beneath notice, told not to speak until spoken to first. One day she asks the ladies of the house, Catharina and her mother, Maria Thins (Judy Parfitt), if when she is cleaning the studio if she should do the windows. Her concern is that doing so would change the light. The women look at her without comprehension and Catharina tells her to go ahead and clean the windows. For Maria these are just paintings, things that allow her son-in-law to make money, but for Griet they are something else, and it while cleaning the windows in the corner of the studio that Vermeer used in most of his paintings, that the artists sees her and discovers a new source of inspiration. The fact that neither his perpetually pregnant wife nor his coin counting mother-in-law has any appreciation for art explains in large part why Vermeer is drawn to Griet. She might not be able to read but he asks her what color are the clouds, she knows the obvious answer is not right for a painter and comes up with the correct one. But then when Vermeer shows her the canvas he is working on, "Young Woman with a Water Pitcher" (1994-65), she knew that the colors were all wrong, and he explains why. This is a film in which the most erotic moment comes when we finally see Griet's hair, although others might disagree and find mixing paints to be the height of the film's sexuality. But I tended to dismiss such things because I find "Girl with a Pearl Earring" to be about an intimacy that transcends the mere physical realm of sex (the actual painting is of intimate size, 18 by 16 inches). Whatever feelings they might have for each other have to be expressed in other ways, because this is a film that has its sensibilities firmly set in the world of art in the 17th century. Besides, the venality of man is amply represented by Vermeer's patron, the wealthy businessman Van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson). Ultimately the film comes down to not just the girl, but to the pearl earring, which belongs to Catharine, but which Vermeer insists must be dangling from Griet's ear in the portrait. Griet knows this is going too far, but we know that she cannot deny him in the end, especially since we have seen the finished painting, which is one of the most beguiling in art history this side of "The Mona Lisa." But also because she is given a push in a somewhat surprising move by one of the characters. The notion that if this is romance it is of a transcendent type that cannot be judged by normal rules. He immortalizes her in a painting and what does she do in return? She lets him pierce her ear and of equal importance, she moves a chair. I so admire films that can work on that lyrical a level. This 2003 film has been nominated for Oscars for Cinematography Eduardo Serra, Art Direction, set director Ben van Os and set decorator Cecile Heidman, and Costume Design by Dien van Straalen. All clearly take their inspiration from Vermeer's paintings. The lighting throughout the film reflects that of Vermeer's studio, which means it never looks quite as good when we are elsewhere, because the studio is the heart of the film. Tanneke (Joanna Scanlan), the family maid, looks like "The Milkmaid" (1958-60) and Vermeer's wife at one point is costumed exactly like "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" (1663-64). Like the painting from which it takes its name and whose enduring image naturally ends the film, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is Quiet and contemplative. The entire story is speculative because little is known about Vermeer besides his 35 painting, and whether his model for this one was his daughter, a neighbor, or a tradeswoman, no one will ever know. But it is impossible not to look at this painting without wondering who this girl was and what thoughts are going through her mind. Johannson's performance commands the film, although she is seldom required to speak and rarely asked what she might be thinking. Parfitt as the true power in the Vermeer household offers the other stellar performance, while Firth's dazzling charm from other films is sublimated to his character's artistic temperament. Of course, the greatest compliment that can be paid to first time director Peter Webber is that he has crafted this film with the same care that Vermeer used in painting his own canvases.
|
