Review: Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

Susan Granger's review of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (Lion's Gate Films)
     As this film unfolds, you're transported back in time to the 17th century
of Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. Based on Tracy Chevalier's best-selling
novel, screenwriter Olivia Hetreed and director Peter Webber speculate on the
circumstances surrounding the mysterious creation of Vermeer's most famous
painting - and their fiction is presented so realistically that it's
convincing.
      Set in Holland, in 1665, the story revolves around 16 year-old Griet
(Scarlett Johansson), the modest Calvinist daughter of a Delft tilemaker, who
is hired as a servant in the tempestuous Catholic household of Vermeer (Colin
Firth). As she's dutifully cleaning the artist's attic studio, she becomes
fascinated by the interaction of light, space and color. Gratified by her
interest in his craft, he teaches her how to mix paints, but their intimacy
arouses his wife's (Essie Davis) jealousy and his mother-in-law's (Judy
Parfitt) ire. Tension is escalated when Vermeer's conniving patron, Master van
Ruijven (Tom Wilkerson), demands that he, secretly, paint a portrait of Griet,
who is psychologically tormented as she's also being courted by the butcher's
son (Cillian Murphy).
      Having scored earlier this year in "Lost in Translation," Scarlett
Johansson radiates luminous intelligence, bearing uncanny resemblance to the
real model for the painting, while Colin Firth embodies the artist's muted
conflict. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra, production designer Ben van Os and
costumer Dien van Straalen pay tribute to Vermeer by meticulously constructing
each scene as a vibrant work of art, and the sensuous, inherent intrigue is
augmented by Alexandre Desplat's musical score. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1
to 10, "Girl With a Pearl Earring" is an elegant, exquisite 8. Watching it is
to see a painting come to life before your eyes.

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X-RAMR-ID: 36434
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1223876
X-RT-TitleID: 1128236
X-RT-SourceID: 742
X-RT-AuthorID: 1274
X-RT-RatingText: 8/10