The Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) Peter Webber   This film is a speculative tale on the origin of the famous Johannes Vermeer painting. The story centers on the young Puritan woman Griet (Scarlett Johansson), whose family's financial woes compel her to take a job as a servant in the Vermeer household. Timid by nature, and reticent about living with Catholics, Griet is further unnerved by the towering, brooding figure of Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) himself-a man of few words and intense moods whom few dare to cross. Ultimately, Vermeer warms up to this young woman, whose appreciation and understanding of his work touches a lonely void in the painter's heart (for his own wife has never understood her husband's creative soul). Naturally, Griet is soon the object of unkind regard from the rest of the Vermeer family but ultimately consents to model for the artist, becoming the "Girl with a pearl earring." Although largely fictional, this is an intriguing idea, but director Peter Webber's approach to the material is just too understated. Perhaps he was trying to avoid the bawdy Shakespeare in Love approach, but he leans too far in the other direction. The result is a sedate, at times almost catatonic film. Griet is also so waifish and anemic a character that it is hard for the viewer to really embrace her. Vermeer himself is the most interesting character, but the film never probes very deeply into his character nor explores what really made this great man tick. Where this film best succeeds is in its depiction of the period itself, and the recreation of the images which inspired Vermeer's work. Director Webber and lighting cameraman Eduardo Serra gorgeously replicate the settings and distinctive use of light that Vermeer so brilliantly captured, and there are moments in this film when his work seems to come alive right there on celluloid. In addition, there are many small moments and details which speak volumes about life in 17th-century Holland, and in particular the methods by which Vermeer and his contemporaries painted are shown in vivid, accurate detail. While The Girl with the Pearl Earring is an interesting film, its tone is just too aloof and passionless to ever involve the viewer emotionally. It is atmospheric, visually attractive, and admirable in its depiction of the period, but when all has been said and done, the storytelling is too shallow to be satisfying. —Paul Andrew MacLean

Click here to order: The Girl with a Pearl Earring     To order Renaissance Magazine, click here.     To order medieval tapestries and other period products, click here.