Someone less enamoured of Girl With A Pearl Earring than we has commented that the film is so slow it's sort of like watching paint dry.

Actually, it's exactly like watching paint dry. That would be the point. Girl With A Pearl Earring concerns the painter Vermeer and his complicated relationship with a young maid in his household. The year is 1665, the setting is the Dutch city of Delft and the goings-on are as 1665-ish as you can imagine -- slow, detailed, labour-intensive, no-mod-cons. The stillness of the film (not the oxymoron it seems) is one of its many marvels.

As befits the subject matter, the film is visually magnificent, all light play and painterly. Girl With A Pearl Earring is truly fabulous to look at. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra has created magic here.

Based on the novel by Tracy Chevalier, Girl With A Pearl Earring stars Colin Firth as Vermeer and Scarlett Johansson as Griet, the maid in Vermeer's household.

When Griet's father is hurt in an accident, she must find work to support her family. In the household of Johannes Vermeer, the painter's mother-in-law (Judy Parfitt, who is remarkable in this role) runs the show. Vermeer himself is depicted as a reclusive perfectionist. He seems to hide out from his wife and children, and small wonder. Many demands are made on him to paint more and earn more.

What quickly differentiates Griet from everyone else in the house is her actual interest in what Vermeer does. Slowly, they develop a relationship. He teaches her how to look at colour and how to mix colours on his behalf.

How Vermeer comes to paint a portrait of Griet involves some of the sexiest non-sexual scenes extant -- Vermeer catching a glimpse of Griet's hair when she removes her cap, for example. Much of the smouldering activity is conveyed via extreme close-up of Johansson, who could ignite celluloid in a jiffy with that face. Girl With A Pearl Earring is heavy with desire, despite the social, religious, economic and status barriers that separate the two main characters.

Those social, religious, economic and status barriers are examined in great detail, too, another huge attraction of the film. Girl With A Pearl Earring pays meticulous attention to all the dress, domestic arrangements and social machinations of the time. This is very rich fare.

(This film is rated PG)

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