This reminds me that I never reviewed the new Landmark E Street theater, the long-awaited art cinema for downtown DC. The best thing about it, I suppose, is that it exists, in the sense that finally there's a convenient place to see independent and foreign films in a reasonably comfortable setting, but the theater itself is disappointing, especially in comparison with Landmark's plush Bethesda venue. I've been in only two auditoriums so far, but both have been very small with all their seats uncomfortably close to the screen, and no stadium seating, a shock for a brand-new theater in this day and age. And the prices are extortionate: $9.25 for every show except the very first of the day.
For reasons I can't recall, I decided to see Girl With a Pearl Earring despite not caring much for classical art, never having enjoyed any movie about painters or painting (my kind of artist biopic is Ed Wood), and having seen only lukewarm reviews. The movie, based on Tracy Chevalier's novel, tells the imagined story behind Johannes Vermeer's titular painting, with a surly Colin Firth as Vermeer and wide-eyed Scarlett Johansson as Girl (actually, she's named Griet). Well, it beats watching paint dry, but only by a nose.
As one would hope, the film looks beautiful, with scenes created with an artist’s eye for light, color, and composition. Unfortunately, the characters, mostly flat and unshaded, could have come straight from a painting as well. There’s the wicked old lech (Tom Wilkinson has great fun with this role), the demon-seed child, the spurned wife, the moody painter, the naïve ingénue. It’s too bad the rich, evocative world that the movie creates is populated by such dullards.
As I mentioned, I don’t care much for or know much about
classical art (nor have I read Chevalier’s novel), so perhaps I’m missing
a lot that would reward a more educated and appreciative viewer.
Sucks to be me, I guess.
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