Review: Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)
Laura Clifford
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In the city of Delft in 1665, teenaged Griet (Scarlett Johansson, "Lost in
Translation") must leave her family and go to work when her tile painter father
is blinded in a fire. She becomes a maid under the direction of Tanneke
(Joanna Scanlan) in the home of painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth, "What a
Girl Wants"). She keeps to herself, but when a domestic servant's squabble
results in her sleeping quarters being moved from the basement to the attic, it
is arranged that she should clean Vermeer's studio, an enclave not even his
wife is allowed into, as she must go through it to enter the rest of the
household. Through no action of her own, the unassuming maid is now under
Catharina Vermeer's (Essie Davis, "The Matrix Reloaded") scrutiny.
British television director Peter Webber makes a feature debut that is both
subtle and strong bringing Tracy Chevalier's best seller (adapted by Olivia
Hetreed) to the screen. In collaboration with cinematographer Eduardo Serra
("The Widow of Saint Pierre"), who won a Jury award at the San Sebastian film
festival for his work and should be an Oscar front runner, Webber perfectly
captures the life of an elusive artist trapped in the politics of a household
run by three generations of women.
Small events rachet up the tension between mistress and maid. An elaborate
feast is prepared to celebrate both the birth of the Vermeer's latest child and
the unveiling of the most recent commissioned painting for benefactor Van
Ruijven (a miscast Tom Wilkinson, "In the Bedroom"). Van Ruijven announces that
his next commission will go to Rembrandt, alarming Maria Thins (Judy Parfitt,
"Dolores Clairborne"), Vermeer's mother-in-law and household financier, but he
also expresses an interest in being painted with their new, pretty maid.
Remarking on Vermeer's secretive working style, he salaciously remarks to
Catharina 'I have a mind to go up there one day and surprise him in the act.'
When Griet asks Catharina and Maria if she should wash the windows in the
studio, they wonder why she's even asked. 'It's just that it may change the
light,' the girl replies, and the two women wonder that the girl would think of
such a thing. It is the artist's eye in the girl that draws the attention of
Vermeer himself, and soon he entrusts the girl with mixing his paints, shows
her his camera obscura, and draws out of her that the clouds outside are not
white, but yellow, red and gray. When one of Catharina's hair combs is stolen,
Griet is charged. She boldly asks Vermeer for help and he unexpectedly
searches the house, finding the comb under the pillow of his daughter Cornelia
(Alakina Mann, "The Others"), a girl who sees much and says little. Catharina
is less than appeased, though, and Griet's days are numbered.
Webber builds up the sexual tension between Griet and Vermeer with looks,
acknowledgements of understanding that pass between the two. He stages one of
the sexiest scenes in cinema history with two fully clothed people standing
yards apart when Vermeer illicitly gazes at Griet, her hair exposed (Griet
modestly keeps hair covered beneath a cap and Johansson may never look as
stunning on film again as she does here). The two only have physical contact
twice - when their fingers brush together as they both mix paint and when
Vermeer pierces Griet's ear in preparation for the famous painting, a metaphor
for her deflowering.
Firth and Johansson are perfectly paired. He exudes repressed passion with his
dark eyes and brooding looks, yet he is hamstrung by his manipulative
mother-in-law and the demands of his wife so the passion is mixed sharply with
frustration of many natures. Johansson expresses intelligent inquisitiveness
with her eyes. Physically she shrinks herself inward so as not to attract
attention, except when her mind has been engaged and she forgets herself.
The rest of the household is also perfectly cast. Parfitt is a standout as the
wily player who puts commerce before her daughter, complicit in the use of
Catharina's earrings for Van Ruijven's painting of Griet even though she knows
the act will cause a rift in the household. Davis nicely handles the pretty
but perpetually petulant wife trying to maintain her husband's interest.
Outside of the household, however, casting is off. Wilkinson gives Van
Ruijven's leering his all, but the role called for someone fatter, more florid.
Cillian Murphy ("28 Days") as Pieter, the butcher's son who woos Griet, is,
frankly, prettier than his costar. The role would have been better served by
someone more brutishly handsome.
Hetreed's adaptation maintains focus on the book's intrigues, yet she keeps
artistic details that bring Vermeer's world to life. We learn, for example,
that India yellow was produced from sacred cows who only ate mango leaves
('You've glazed my wife in dried piss!' Van Ruijven heartily exclaims).
Another excellent sequence, where Griet removes a chair from Vermeer's
arrangement, indicates an artistic collaboration between the two based upon a
historic fact (that particular painting has been x-rayed, revealing that
Vermeer had painted over a chair).
The recreation of Vermeer's household visually is astounding. Serra
painstakingly recreated scenes from the artist's work and shot using natural
light. When the titular painting itself is finally staged, it is simply
breathtaking. (All the paintings shown in the film are replicas, except for
this one, which is shown at the end of the film in a slow zoom from the blob of
white that creates the gleam on the pearl earring.)
"Girl with the Pearl Earring" is one of the best films ever made about art made
richer with its speculative interior drama.
A-
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X-RT-RatingText: A-