戴珍珠耳环的少女 Girl With A Pearl Earring review by PAM GRADY

Not a lot is known about 17th-century painter Johannes Vermeer, except that he died in early middle age, leaving 11 surviving children and 35 paintings that have survived into the 21st century. One of those paintings, "Girl with a Pearl Earring," was only re-discovered in 1882 and its origins remain a mystery. Inspired by a reproduction of the portrait on her wall, author Tracy Chevalier attempted to solve the enigma in novel form. It is Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring that now inspires Peter Webber's drama of the same name, a portrait of artist and model as well drawn as anything painted by Vermeer himself.
The Vermeer (Colin Firth) of Girl with a Pearl Earring is a man under constant pressure. He lives in his mother-in-law Maria's (Judy Parfitt) home with his many children and demanding, usually pregnant wife Catharina (Essie Davis). Money is always an issue as he depends on the capricious whims of his patron, van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson).

Into this situation steps 17-year-old Griet (Scarlett Johansson), forced into servitude by her own family's money troubles. Assigned the task of cleaning Vermeer's studio, she becomes increasingly intrigued by the painter's art. For his part, Vermeer is gratified to have someone in his household show genuine interest in his work. The two grow ever closer as Vermeer trains her to mix his paints and she begins spending more and more time in his studio. She becomes his reluctant model when van Ruijven, a vulgar man with a taste for beauty, commissions her portrait.

Webber's drama could be a Vermeer painting itself; it is uncommonly beautiful, shot through with an amber glow by cinematographer Eduardo Serra with 17th-century Delft expertly re-created by production designer Ben van Os. But this is a delicate drama, a romance where the emotions are necessarily repressed by the conventions of the times. It calls for subtle performances from Firth and Johansson. Webber draws that out of them. The relationship between Griet and Vermeer plays out almost like a dance. The whole movie plays like that, a romance and a history told in waltz time.

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