Review

Review Date: 1-February-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003)

Of all the forms of artistic expression, I would have to say that painting is one of my least favorite. It's rare that a canvas will delight, fascinate, or possess me, since most of them represent (to my senses) only the surface of things, and the ones that aim to deny the surface of things seem improperly expressed. So, if I were going to make a movie based on a famous painting, I would stock it with lots of juicy emotions, struggles, revelations, or intrigues in order to breathe life into the art. Thus it strikes me as odd that the screen adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's book, "Girl With a Pearl Earring," is so determinedly superficial. I'm not one hundred percent sure what this tale inspired by Vermeer's chef d'oeuvre is supposed to be about, but it conveys little more than a vague historical nostalgia and an acute visual loveliness.

"Girl With a Pearl Earring" takes place in Holland during the 1660s at the precariously genteel house of painter Johannes Vermeer and his growing family. The audience experiences Vermeer's world through the eyes of Griet (Scarlett Johansson), the daughter of a tile maker who becomes a maid in his household. Griet's life consists of the expected trials and tribulations of the servant class (hard work, uncomfortable quarters, an aggressively attentive young butcher), but she finds comfort and exhilaration in contemplating the work of her master. The artist himself (Colin Firth) soon takes notice of her eye for beauty and color and enlists her aid, which infuriates his pampered wife (Essie Davis), galvanizes his domineering mother-in-law (Judy Parfitt), and enflames the curiosity of his lecherous patron (Tom Wilkinson), who wants Griet to serve him in ways that don't involve mixing vermilion or lapis lazuli.

The film is made up of long stretches of pointedly scored stillness (during which the camera gazes at Griet, or she gazes at the world around her), interrupted occasionally by outbursts of feeling (emerging mostly from the pouty lips of Mistress Vermeer, the one character who feels like a real, albeit highly annoying, person). Buried somewhere at its enigmatic core are themes of status and gender, power and money, art and attraction --- and perhaps even full-bodied individuals with passions such as the movie's poster suggests --- but their voices never rise above a whisper. Instead, what meaning the movie holds speaks entirely through isolated images. And in fact, images almost make "Girl With a Pearl Earring" worthwhile, or at least save it from being a total wash. The dirty but gorgeous streets and canals of the 17th-century town; the costumes (and their importance to the characters); the lighting; the details of Vermeer's studio and craft; the scenes of housemaids at work; and the unique comeliness of Johansson all help transport the viewer to a lost, strangely refined, and inherently fascinating time and place. Too bad the movie doesn't offer a story as a deeper reward for making the trip.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.