Girl with a Pearl Earring (DVD, 2004)

The best thing about this movie is the cinematography and the insight it gives to an artist and his painting in 1660s Holland. We see Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) mixing the paint, figuring out his subject, and even painting the pictures. The story revolves around Grietl (Scarlett Johansson), a young Calvinist whose family needs her to work as a maid in the Catholic Vermeer household; religion must be the reason that Grietl wears what looks like a nun's cap throughout the movie. The house is run by Vermeer's wife and her mother--both of whom are immediately jealous of the new maid. Why? Who knows?

Johannes immediately takes a liking to the maid, but nothing ever happens to create suspicion. He is all business and uses Grietl to help clean the studio and mix some of the colors. Eventually, he is forced to use Grietl as the subject of one of his paintings because his patron wants a portrait of her.
A gruesome part of the movie occurs when he cannot visualize Griel wearing pearl earrings (duh!), and so she has to pierce her ear so that he can see how it looks. The actual piercing is shown in the movie, and we all gasp when it looks like actual blood coming from Grietl's ear.

"The Girl With a Pearl Earring" is an actual portrait by Vermeer, and the director of the movie says that it has been compared to the Mona Lisa--it is called the Mona Lisa of the North. The movie is stunningly beautiful, moves slowly, and ends too soon.

Some of the unresolved conflicts are: (1) Grietl has a cute boyfriend who works for the family's butcher. He has proposed to Grietl, so did she marry him? (2) Grietl's father is very ill which causes her to have to leave her own family. What happened to them? (3) What happened to the picture after Grietl was dismissed. Did the patron buy it? Where is it now?

This movie could be better but it is pretty good as it is.

Great to see Colin Firth in most any movie, and he did not disappoint, as Vermeer.
I like the fact that his character did not physically commit adultery, with the maid, Griet, who was young enough to be one of his many children.
Of course, this was a fictional account, & I would hope that the real Vermeer was all business...but you never can tell, with artists, can you?
If, indeed, Vermeer hungered for the love of a woman who understood his work, & who was very interested in mixing paints, & in studying the play of light on a subject, etc., it's too bad that he found himself marrying for financial security, rather that finding his soulmate.
And...it's too bad that Griet didn't have the opportunity to go to Art School.
Roberta

I had read the book with the same name, and was familiar with Delft and the original painting, so was interested in having the movie.Also, I wanted to know more about the life of Vermeer. The movie follows the book quite closely, and gives an excellent portrait of life in Holland in that period. However, if I had not read the book first, I would have had difficulty following the movie. The scenes were dark and sometimes disjointed.

I bought the movie because I like Colin Firth as an actor. I was disappointed he had so little speaking parts in the movie, although he said much through his expressions and actions.

I think the entire movie was beautifully done in scenery and color. Scenes were shot very well and expressions of characters were far more telling than most movies..sort of as "actions speak louder than words". It leaves much to the imagination.

The director got a lot out of his actors and actresses, more so than many do.
He obviously demanded more, because there were fewer words spoken when I thought there should have been.

The movie left me feeling quite sad for Vermeer. He was obviously a very unhappy man caught in a marriage where he was obligated to paint for money rather than for pleasure.

It was a movie that I will probably watch several times. It leaves one with many questions in your mind, for which you can make your own answers.

I rented this movie originally and wanted to be able to watch it again and again. The scenery and sets are magnificent, and the light is very good. I very much enjoyed the portrayal of this time period, profiling the painting of Vermeer during the fifteenth century. The acting is very good also, and the story is well written, touching on wealth, poverty and people's power of governing each other because of their financial position in society. It also clearly shows that social standing is not a clear indicator of intelligence. It's also a love story reaching across two different worlds and no matter how much we want it to work out, we can't have everything.