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Girl with a Pearl Earring
EMAILPRINTLions Gate Films Inc.

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 38 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 34 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Olivia Hetreed
Tracy Chevalier (novel)
Directed by: Peter Webber
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 12, 2003
DVD: May 4, 2004
Running Time: 95 minutes, Color
Origin: UK / Luxembourg
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some sexual content
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian Murphy, Essie Davis, Joanna Scanlan, and Alakina Mann
Set in 17th century Holland, this speculative account focuses on a 16-year-old housemaid who was the inspiration for one of Johannes Vermeer's most famous paintings.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The New Yorker Anthony Lane
Look closely at Johansson...an immaculate period performance. [15 December 2003, p. 119]
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
What distinguishes Girl With a Pearl Earring is its combination of refined filmmaking and Johansson's exquisitely understated acting. It partakes of Vermeer's spirit and style, and that makes it one of the year's best movies.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
A rich gem expertly told in a surprisingly scant 95 minutes.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A quiet movie, shaken from time to time by ripples of emotional turbulence far beneath the surface.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
If the scope of the film feels small, Girl With a Pearl Earring fills that scope to bursting with subtle glory. It takes things as far as they can -- and should -- go.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
If the scope of the film feels small, Girl With a Pearl Earring fills that scope to bursting with subtle glory. It takes things as far as they can -- and should -- go.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
An intelligent, visually ravishing adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The actress (Scarlett Johansson) gives a nearly silent performance, yet the interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Johansson, fittingly, is the focus. In her face, as in the faces of Vermeer's handful of captivating subjects, the viewer intuits whole stories and worlds.
Read Full Review >Empire Natasha Aitken
one of the rare book adaptations that actually benefits from a visual makeover.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
The most enchanting point about cinematographer Eduardo Serra work here is that he hasn't put Vermeer's painting into the film; he has put the film into Vermeer.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Even if Girl With a Pearl Earring is not nearly as remarkable dramatically as it is visually, it is, finally, a film of great beauty, and that is something worth appreciating.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Webber displays a great sense of understatement and a keen eye for careful framing, with cinematographer Eduardo Serra beautifully re-creating Vermeer's signature play of shadow and light.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
Webber spins a slight but considerably enchanting tale of impossible romance and artistic discovery.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
One of those films that does many things right, and that places it among the year's best period pieces. It's a cut above the usual BBC costume drama.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Does an uncommonly good job of summoning all that goes into a masterpiece - erotic tension, financial considerations, even the sensual, elaborate grinding and mixing of paint colors as per 17th-century requirements.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
It isn't an exciting work of art so much as a contemplative reverie on the nature of art -- and what's wrong with a smart essay that unfolds like a sweet dream?
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
If movies were still silent, Girl With a Pearl Earring would be a near-masterpiece.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
There are certain rare movies that speak to us solely through the power and initiative of their visuals. This is one of them, and if you're receptive to this kind of movie, and know Vermeer's work, it's an unusually satisfying, even enriching experience.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Dancing on the edge of dullness, ''Girl'' is continually saved by the look of things: the hush of an atelier in midafternoon, dust-motes swirling in a sunbeam, pigment blooming under mortar and pestle. Impatience is forestalled, time and again, by rapture.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Near the end, when Griet puts on that earring and Johansson magically morphs into the figure on that canvas, you'll be knocked for a loop.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
It's beautiful to look at, and yet the story is strangely lacking; the novel's first chapter, available online at author Chevalier's Web site, tchevalier.com, seems to contain more plot points than the entire film.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The period detail is more vibrant than the minimal story.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and silently beseeching, she's (Johansson) even more a screen for projection here than in "Lost in Translation"; surrounded by a gaggle of over-actors, she glows with understatement.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Laughably predictable in its plotting, crude in its symbolism, ploddingly paced and often rendered almost comical by the heavy-breathing overacting of Johansson's supporting cast.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Girl With a Pearl Earring is really about watching paint dry. S l o w l y.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Unfolds as a series of meticulous tableaux vivants, but like those parlor pastimes, it lacks physical verve and a compelling emotional charge.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Angel Cohn
Webber's assured directing is evident throughout; in addition to eliciting strong performances from his cast, he always knows when to linger on an image and when to move on.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
What's the point of setting up a historical fantasia around an invented character if you're only going to make her part of the scenery?
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Eye caviar that doesn't pretend to be much else.
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Pretty much the whole movie is a series of poses, static and uninvolving, except for cinematographer Eduardo Serras lighting, which makes everything look convincingly Vermeer-ish. Id like to see what he could do with Rembrandt.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
An auspicious feature-directing debut by Mr. Webber in so many ways -- a groaning board of temptations for the eye and ear -- that you may almost forgive the film its lack of drama and the perfunctory attempts at characterization. Viewing this film has been likened to watching paint dry; actually it is more like watching a painting dry.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
This material is either underdeveloped or crudely put by a director whose style is so conventional that he makes James Ivory look, by comparison, like Jean-Luc Godard.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Webber's film offers painstaking reproductions of the town of Delft circa 1665 in all four seasons. That's just the problem: you feel every pain he took. Girl With a Pearl Earring is an art movie in the worst way.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
In filming this movie with such artistic precision, the movie ironically winds up objectifying Griet just as much as any appreciator of the original painting.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 34 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Richard M. gave it a9:
I thought the tension that was created in the book was expertally portrayed in the film, with Tracey Chevalier's messages coming through loud and clear.
Jo H. gave it a10:
This movie will take your breathe away. Definitely a piece of art in motion.
Mitch M. gave it an 8:
A fascinating glimpse at the stultifying life of the lowlands middle class, with carefully rendered details and a transcendent performance by Scarlett Johansson that is mesmerizing.
Pat C. gave it a 6:
A movie about a painting that has more life than the movie. I simply cannot believe it was that boring to be Dutch in the 1600s. Johansson is convincing as a supressed maid in a joyless stuck-up household. Almost mundane, but a must for appreciators of fine art, or those who might like to be. The one undeniable achievement of the film is its validation of Vermeer's masterpiece.
Luis gave it a 2:
The only good feature of this film would be the "Vermeer lighting", if it hadn't been used to excess. Beautiful effects, but too artificial. It may be evening, it may be morning or afternoon, it may be raining or snowing outside, no matter; there is still beautiful light streaming through the windows of the Vermeer house. Even at night, when the maid is using a lantern to light her way, her face gets beautiful side lighting. The effect is jarring. As for the plot and characters, they are clichés: the brooding, misunderstood artist, the shy but oh so smart maid who does understand Art, the artist's wife who does not understand Art, the tyrannical mother-in-law who, needless to say, doesn't understand Art either, and so on, and so forth. Writers and filmmakers should not try to substitute somebody else's--in this case Vermeer's--genius for their own lack of talent.
Donald O. gave it a 10:
A soft, inspired and delicately romantic film. It captures a special time, infuses it with unfulfilled, quiet passion, and seems to explain both the vision and motivation of an artist. Moreover, it poses questions in subtle ways that reveal themselves to viewers long after the credits roll. A splendid experience.
Marcus B. gave it a 10:
It's a telling sign that so many viewers are criticizing this movie for its slow pace or lack of "plot". Since when do films absolutely have to have fast paced, clear-cut storylines that even the bridge and tunnel crowd can follow? This is the antithesis to the cookie cutter storylines normally coming out of Hollywood. No car chases, no magically satisfying ending where all is neatly tied together (Americans do love their happy endings...), no emphasis on triumph of the spirit (the "I can do it if I apply myself" illusion). Just life.
