Girl With a Pearl Earring (2004)

REALLY SLOW! REALLY BORING!

obviously all the people that gave this movie 4-5 stars were asked to write positive reviews or read the book. this movie had so many wholes in it that i couldnt wait for it to end. the script was probably only two pages of diologue. you could literally watch this movie while cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes with the sound off and still know what was going on. I love period movies and the set, clothing, scenery ect. fit the bill. Its to bad there was'nt some substance along with it. July 23, 2008

If Vermeer Was Brit

This beautifully made film is worth seeing for the heavily meditated transmission of 17th century Dutch art to the screen, a stunning achievement. Delft is wonderfully recreated based on the works of Vermeer and many other painters. The basic story line about a Calvinist girl warily going into a Bohemian artist household is fine, and Scarlett Johanson is very good, as is her butcher's apprentice boyfriend.

The only problem is that this isn't Vermeer -- they should have simply used another name as in ordinary Roman a' clef novels such as The Sun Also Rises. While we do not have a dense background on Vermeer, we do know enough to say he wasn't a broody British Heathcliff. Painting wasn't his only gig nor even perhaps his main one -- he traded rugs & paintings & took over his dad's tavern. He knew all the artists in town and painted himself as a happy camper at least 3 times we know of. There is no reason to imagine his marriage and household wasn't happy, either -- it's an island of calm in 25 pics painted over 25 years. I guess you can't slander the dead, but as they used to say in the old days, there oughta be a law.

Colin Firth is otherwise fine as Heathcliff in this spin off of Wuthering Heights moved to Delft, and the rest of the cast as Heathcliff's batty family. Remove the historicist pretension and the film works beautifully. Unfortunately, the cartooning of major artists is getting epedemic with films like Shakespeare in Love and Amadeus. For kids raised on the History Channel, Hollywood as history, this is bad candy which shouldn't be accepted from stangers. They are getting the past recreated with great visual acumen, but 0 inner light. June 25, 2008

If You Like Seeing People Standing Around Wide Eyed and Gaped Jawed, This Movie is for You.

Everyone else do yourself a favor and avoid it. I'm just happy that I saw it on IFC and didn't rent or (heaven forbid) buy the stupid thing. I was hoping for a movie that would be both visually and intellectually stimulating (like The Agony and the Ecstasy) but instead only got one that was pleasing to the eye. I kept hoping that the story would show up but it never did, unless of course the script read "Scarlet Johansson stands wide eyed and fearful for the next hour and a half." The romance (if that was what it was) between Griet and the butcher's son was neither developed (did she love him or was she repulsed by him) or necessary. Nor can I see any reason for the groping scene, the bratty daughter "sub-plot" (you must have a plot before you can have a sub-plot), or pretty much anything else in the movie. I won't go as far as some to complain about the American accents, since the only way to have real authenticity in that department would be to have everyone speaking Dutch, but the "creepy guy/stalker boss/all men are evil" theme has been done to death and this movie provided us with two examples of it!

I've not read the novel and, as another reviewer stated, now I don't want to but I do hope the rule that the book is better than the movie is the case.

My final thought, nice to look at but otherwise boring and pretentious. May 2, 2008

Good, but no depth as book had

This movie was okay, but it did not portray the book as I would have imagined. They left out important scenes from the book. Scarlett Johannson did not embody the main character well. She did not show any of the bravery or integrity as in the novel. April 26, 2008

Disappointed

While I think that the film was beautifully filmed, I was more than disappointed by the screenplay. If you have read the book, you will realize that many interesting points were omitted. From the beginning, the scene where Vermeer "interviewed" Griet at her home and hired her after seeing her arranging the vegetables according to colors. For me, this set the stage for their relationship. Unfortunately, it was omitted. The mother-in-law was a strong personality in the book but played down in the film. The book ended with Griet marrying the butcher and having a family. It may have been implied in the film but I missed it.
A great opportunity was missed to make this a classic. April 10, 2008

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