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A Motion Painting
Girl With A Pearl Earring captures the visual beauty of classic painting, with the help of the current "It" Girl of Hollywood.

Starring: Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy
Directors: Peter Webber

Reviewed by Kevin Cunningham

THE PITCH: One of the great painters of Holland needs inspiration, and finds it in a chambermaid who has an understanding of the things he finds beautiful. IN OTHER WORDS: Shakespeare In Love for the painting set, instead of witty banter, it's got incredible visuals.

The great irony is that Girl With A Pearl Earring came from a book, inspired by the painting. Maybe this is just a movie geek speaking, but words, not even ten thousand of them, can not do justice to the beauty that is the original artwork hanging in museums across Europe.

Though this film stars Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth, the true star of this film is Director of Photography Edurardo Serra and Director Peter Webber. Serra, a French cinematographer, does an incredible job of capturing the way these incredible painters saw the world. Few people are able to catch and use the light in film the way you can see it in any museum, partially because of the nature of the artform. Light doesn't stand still, and in anything but one frame, it's almost impossible to set it up to capture each frame as magically as the one before it. Serra does a wonderful job of doing just that, and the effort shows in each scene. There's a very magical quality to this film, and the credit belongs there.

Webber, a verteran of Made-For-TV movies makes he feature debut with Girl, and does an excellent job of capturing the mood of the time in Holland, straddling the line between the upper class and lower classes of the time. As the film follows Griet, the young maid played by Johansson, it shows the way the classes interacted, and even brings to mind some modern portrayals of the class system in New York as Griet timidly stands before her master and mistress.

Johansson just adds to her growing status in Hollywood, with this film being part of an unusual trifecta of films in the last 8 months. Between the artsy Girl, the serious Lost in Translation, and the pop film The Perfect Score, Johansson has truly become the hot actress in Hollywood. She's proven herself to be far more versatile than many of the young ingénue her age. Firth, meanwhile, does well with the role of being the famous Vermeer. He's done quite a bit of fluff movies recently, from What a Girl Wants to Love Actually, so it's nice to seem him in a serious role again. He's no Pollack, but he's no slouch, either.

The DVD holds little extra attraction for it's viewers. Outside of subtitles, it features only the 'Anatomy of the Scene' documentary and a music video by singer/songwriter Truman, called ìGirl With A Pearlî and starring, of course, Johansson (looking very sultry, indeed). Neither of these are a waste of time, but neither are they the kinds of things that make DVDs worth hours of extra viewing.

Rating	Film:(3out of 4 stars)
	Extras: (2out of 4 stars)
	Overall: (3out of 4 stars)

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