Visual masterpiece...shame about the rest! (Girl With A Pearl Earring (DVD))

Member Name: Fairydustbitch

Product:	Girl With A Pearl Earring (DVD)
Date:	26/01/06 (312 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Set, lighting, tension, look

Disadvantages: Acting, plotting, far too short!

“Girl With a Pearl Earring” is based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier. It’s a fairly unrealistic interpretation of what may have happened between the painter Vermeer and his most famous model, the anonymous girl of the title. What makes the painting so unusual is that unlike most of Vermeer’s paintings is that the subject stares right out at us, and although Vermeer painted a few like that, it was more usual to have his subjects not looking straight out from his paintings. Also, unlike most of his paintings, the background in the painting is painted pitch black, where usually Vermeer painted backgrounds. These unusual traits, combined with her very unique beauty and the look of incredible intensity painted upon the girls face, have served to make her a subject of fascination and mystery to us, and make this possibly the artist’s most famous painting. But enough about the painting, lets talk about the film.

The beautiful Scarlett Johansson takes the title role; a maid named Griet, and Colin Firth is the painter Vermeer. Griet is the daughter of a tile painter with failing eyesight, and because of his inability to provide for his family, she has to become a maid to keep her family in bread, not just for any old rich family though, she is to work for the house of Vermeer. The Vermeer household consists of abrupt maid Tanneke, Vermeer’s jealous wife Catherine, the formidable but incredibly smart Maria Thins, and multiple little Vermeers, including snidey and spiteful Cornelia who has a nasty streak belying her appealing face. Finding herself buying from a new butcher, Griet finds herself the star attraction of the household to the butchers handsome son, Pieter. She also finds herself the apple of the creepy, sleazebag Van Ruijven’s eye. As Vermeer’s patron and purchaser of most his paintings, Vermeer finds himself powerless to protect Griet against Van Ruijven’s advances. Vermeer himself begins to find himself attracted to Griet’s considerable charm, her quiet manner and her unspoken understanding of his art and the mystical worlds of colour and light. He begins having her secretly assisting him in mixing his colours and after Van Ruijven decides he wants a painting of the lovely Griet, her master begins to immortalise her on canvas. All of this is carried on behind the back of Catherine, who is jealous of the women that Vermeer paints. The result will be a stunning painting and Vermeer’s most famous piece, but at what cost?

Peter Webber’s sumptuous drama is nearly as beautiful to look at as Vermeer’s painting. The film was clearly designed to look like a painting, and the way that light and dark is used (light being a very important feature of Vermeer’s work) is nothing short of genius. The set is also so carefully arranged and the entire movie looks absolutely stunning and totally lush. Despite being clad in fairly unflattering garb throughout the movie, and having her eyebrows waxed off to look more like the subject of the real painting, Scarlett Johansson has never looked more beautiful than in this film, and she should stick to whoever did the lighting for this movie like glue. The sets are largely clad in browns and greys, but with brilliant flashes of colour like Cornelia’s beautiful red hair and the pearl earring itself, again alluding to the famous painting with its browns and blacks and the flash of the pearl earring and the blue and yellow headwear the model wears. This is the best thing about the film, the way it looks. Unfortunately the acting and the storyline don’t quite meet up to the standards that the stunning set and lighting design sets.

Scarlett Johansson was clearly chosen at least in part for this role because of her old-fashioned beauty and her similarity to the girl in the painting. I’ll be the first to admit I am a huge fan of her work, I though “Lost in Translation” and “Ghost World” were amazing, but aside from her innocent and serene beauty and similarity to the model, this role is not best suited for her, she just doesn’t have the subtlety. I find very much of Scarlett’s acting is placed into that throaty voice of hers, and Griet is a girl who doesn’t talk very much at all, but rather thinks. The actress playing Griet has to be able to convey a busy mind, constant conflicting thoughts and emotions running over her face, but unfortunately Johansson’s “Wide-eyed maid” simply isn’t up to the job. She overacts on quite a regular basis in the film, the way she behaves when men pay her unwanted attention is way over the top, but she is incapable of doing it in a more subtle manner. When she watches colour and light in order to study what Vermeer is secretly teaching her, she just looks bemused and vapid. Its clear that the director deemed her gorgeous husky voice not right for the part and as a result she has a high pitched fake English accent that just sounds awful on her. Her longing looks at Vermeer are about the only part of her performance that really come up to scratch, her already having perfected the desire for an older man in “Lost in Translation”. Nevertheless, despite her artistic shortcoming, this was always a film that was intended to look beautiful, graceful and quiet and in that part of her role she excels.

Unfortunately I cannot be so forgiving with Colin Firth, I really feel he should stick to the trashy rom coms he usually does instead of trying to take forays into high art. Vermeer’s role in this film is essentially to act artistic and moody and crave Griet in his dark, artistic manner. Unfortunately, Firth’s Vermeer feels nothing short of boorish and uncouth, far more a gruff man’s man than a quiet, artistic thinker. His little dialogue with Griet is forced and unnatural, and combined with Johansson’s trained high pitch, it just doesn’t ring true at all. I can think of about fifty actors who would have managed this part better than Firth, and again the only reason I can see that he got the part is that he looks right for it, all dark and mysterious in a sensitive sort of way. So I guess, this being a painting of a film and all, it works, its just a shame that his acting doesn’t come anywhere up to par.

The other performances in the movie are a mixed bag too. Tom Wilkinson’s Van Ruijven is suitably sleazy, threatening and looming, if slightly overplayed, whereas Essie Davis’ Catherina is just laughable and over-acted. Cillian Murphy, however, is stunning in the puppydog role of Pieter the butcher boy, and Judy Parfitt steals the show as Maria Thins, the frightening but all-knowing lady who really runs the house and just lets Catherina pretend she is the lady of the house.

The film also suffers from a massively butchered storyline. If you haven’t read the book you would be forgiven for wondering what the hell is going on, and a quite shifty at the deleted scenes on the DVD will tell you why. Apparently the original cut was somewhere in the region of 300 minutes long so some serious editing had to be done, unfortunately the final cut is just over an hour and a half…which is far too short to portray the complicated world in Griet’s head and the major events in the story which unfold in the book. They could have easily left another twenty or thirty minutes on and had a long, but bearably so, film. As it is several key elements of the book are left out and sadly the film just doesn’t work as well without them. If you see the film before you read the book, as I did, you will be lost. As a result the film relies a little too heavily on dramatic tension and not quite enough on storyline, which feels quite jumpy in contrast to the pace and feel of the film. Its easy to tell there is something missing without having read the book.

This all isn’t helped by the fact that its hard to understand Griet in the film. In the book the story is told from her point of view, we understand her and she’s a wonderful character. Johansson’s Griet is a total mystery, we don’t understand why she does what she does, which isn’t good because Vermeer is supposed to be the mysterious one in the story. This problem could have been solved by using voice-over narration but this would have spoiled the stunning artistic look of the film, so it’s a bit of a Catch-22, so our Griet remains an enigma.

The DVD features include a directors commentary, writers commentary, making of featurette, anatomy of a scene, UK theatrical trailer and a wealth of deleted scenes which really do help to explain the plot of the film much more. All in all its quite a good package in the DVD if you're a fan of the film.

All in all, it seems to come down to the fact that Johansson looks so wonderful in the role we cant imagine anyone else in it, and that’s pretty much what the entire film relies on, style over content and in that it’s a great success. Despite the less-than-impressive turn from its lead actors, “Girl With A Pearl Earring” makes a delightful watch anyway, its incredibly majestic and just like a moving painting to behold. Don’t expect a standard maid-getting-with-man-of-the-house bodice ripper, this film is all about longing looks and slow tension building. Just make sure you get the book to clear events up for you after the film leaves you a bit bewildered!

Summary: Famous painter Vermeer falls for Scarlett Johansson...hey who can blame him?