I finally got around to seeing Girl with a Pearl Earring tonight with Kathleen and a friend. I wasn’t sure what to expect. On one hand, Ebert loved it and I love me some Colin Firth. On the other hand, Scarlett Johansson has been annoying the crap out of me lately. Luckily my Mr. Darcy fixation won out. It’s a wonderful film. Slow, yes, but not boring and not overly melodramatic. Tom Wilkinson made a wonderful villain in his few scenes. The cinematography was lovely; every shot looked like a painting. Scarlett completely made me forget how vapid and shallow she is in real life. I highly recommend it if you’re in the mood for something a little different.
Random Fates Intersecting: I was reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything just last night and came to a footnote about Vermeer in the chapter about microscopes. Bryson mentions that some art historians believe Vermeer “cheated” by using a camera obscura provided by his friend Anton van Leeuwenhoek. It’s a bit of a conspiracy theory, though, so I didn’t expect it to be mentioned in the film. But there it was! Some guys bring in a big wooden box and Vermeer shows Griet how it works. It wasn’t integral to the story or anything – and he only admitted that it “helped” with the paintings – but I was still surprised that they worked it in.
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I agree. It’s definitely not the movie to see after the mexican restaurant we lunched at gave us complimentary tequila shots b/c apparently the pitcher of margaritas we split wasn’t quite enough. Although I did enjoy it. And I loooove me some Colin Firth, also. And you’re right about Scarlett – she pulled it off.
It’s grey and horrible today – might just stay in and watch Pride and Prejudice again and get some more of that Colin Firth – fwaaaarrr! Hey, and on a side note, you know how we were talking about David Wenham and his movie The Bank? – well it’s on tonight (Sunday)!! It’s brilliant!!