Girl with a Pearl Earring
The marriage between a director and a director of photography creates the heart and soul of a motion picture. The director is responsible for the films lifeblood, and using light and shadows, the director of photographer captures its soul. When the union is successful, the result can be something extraordinary and beautiful.
Peter Webber, a UK television director making his theatrical debut with “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” has a soul mate in distinguished director of photography Eduardo Serra, who like an old world master, paints with detail and nuance. Every frame of “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is picture perfect, a testament to an artist who sees beauty and starkness in every ray of light.
Based on the life of 17th Century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer and the maid who inspired one of his most famous paintings, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” relies on Serra’s master strokes to create images that reflect not just the period, but the lifestyle and mood of the artist. Serra is no stranger to photographing period pieces. Just look at the majesty of “Jude” and “Wings of the Dove,” or the whimsy of “What Dreams May Come,” in which Serra literally placed Robin Williams in a living painting.
The paintings don’t come to life in “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” but everything else does, from the quiet yet assured performances of Colin Firth (“Love, Actually,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary”) as Vermeer and Scarlet Johansson as Griet, a 17-year-old maid whose presence in the Vermeer household is both a blessing and a burden, to Ben Van Os’s authentic production design. Director Peter Greenaway’s former designer (“The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Love”), Os turns modern day Belgium into a 17th world of canals and open street markets.
Set loose into this world is Griet, whose parents have sent her to work as a maid for the Vermeer family. Johannes may be the man of the house, but his castle is ruled over with a firm grip by his mother-in-law Maria (Judy Parfitt), who arranges his commissions and watches helplessly as her daughter Catharina (Essie Davis) pumps out one baby after another. After some minor setbacks and a battle of wills with her master’s bratty daughter Cornelia (Alakina Mann), Griet begins to slip into the drudgery that has become her life.
It’s only when Griet is assigned to clean Johannes’ off-limits studio that the painter discovers her natural talent for art and the inspiration for one of his most famous paintings. With her pained, porcelain looks, Griet resembles a waif from “Les Miserables,” but with the right lighting and props (a pearl earring belonging to Catharina), she becomes an amazing subject.
“Girl with a Pearl Earring” isn’t a big film, but it is grand entertainment. Most of the scenes take place on one street or canal, or inside Vermeer’s home, but Webber and writer Olivia Hetreed have populated these places with characters that make the city come to life. Webber occasionally resorts to cinematic tricks to transport us back in time, but once he establishes time and place, we feel right at home.
There aren’t a lot of movies about artists, and for good reason. The art of painting is a very long, arduous and personal task. It’s like making a movie about someone reading. The best movies about artists literally leap off the canvas, exploring what makes them tick. Hetreed, another UK television veteran, uses Tracy Chevalier’s novel to create drama instead of melodrama. The emotions that the characters share are real and honest. With just one look, a character manages to elevate an ordinary scene into something extraordinary.
Johansson is experiencing the kind of year that most actresses only dream about, delivering stellar, star-making performances in both “Lost in Translation” and “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” What I most appreciate about Johansson as an actress is her ability to mix it up, tossing mainstream Hollywood a bone when she’s not blowing our minds with her performances in challenging films like “Ghost World.” She’s absolutely perfect as Griet, whose youthful innocence helps shield her from family politics.
The moment when Griet explores Vermeer’s work in progress, the way she examines his technique, his use of light and layering, Johansson never says a word. Her eyes are so expressive we hear her thoughts loud and clear. Which is why we understand her motive for removing a chair from his set, an unthinkable declaration that a woman, a maid no less, could share the same sensibilities and logic of a man.
Firth lays down the law as Vermeer, who is just as prolific at making babies as he is painting commissioned portraits. Even Griet is stunned to learn that Catharina, who has just given birth to a baby boy, is already with child. At first we’re not sure if Vermeer is man enough to step up to the plate and take a swing, but when Griet is accused of stealing a precious heirloom, his rage becomes volcanic, allowing Firth to command the screen without stealing it.
He’d have to be a master thief. Imagine stealing anything from the wonderful British actress Judy Parfitt, whose steely turn as the family matriarch is filled with surprises. Put an apple in this woman’s hand and she reminds you of Snow White’s evil Queen, but under Parfitt’s spell, we see a voice of reason who always tries to do what is best for her family. Tom Wilkinson, who I admired so much in “Normal,” an HBO movie about a middle-aged married man who wants to become a woman, is appropriately randy as Vermeer’s chief benefactor, not above trading charity for sexual favors.
As the woman of the house, Essie Davis roams the halls almost as if a ghost in her own home. She feels invisible to Johannes, who refuses to paint her. When she finally confronts him, she claims it’s because he doesn’t see her as beautiful, yet she’s totally unprepared for the real reason: she doesn’t get it. Davis eloquently masks Catharina’s hurt, but the indignation in her expression that a maid curries more favor with her husband signals the beginning of the end.
I admit I haven’t seen any of Webber’s UK productions, but “Girl with a Pearl Earring” makes me want to see more. He has a delicate way with his actors, allowing them to get lost in the moment instead of acting around it. Webber keeps everything up close and personal, and through knowing glances or the simple movement of a hand, creates a sexual undercurrent that is much more powerful and erotic than showing the actual act of love.
Webber saves that moment for an act of desperation, when Griet, faced with the possibility of having to sleep with her master’s benefactor, gives herself to the son of the butcher (Cillian Murphy, “28 Days Later”). The fact that Griet would rather become a woman to a man she likes but doesn’t love than to a man out of financial arrangement says a lot about her character. Unlike most women at that time, Griet would rather pick her destiny than let it pick her. Audiences looking for an unexpected pleasure will pick “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
Pearls and Swine
Drama paints historical portrait of artist
THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING
Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy, Essie Davis. Directed by Peter Webber. Rated PG-13. 99 Minutes.
LARSEN RATING: $7.00
