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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

97
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35
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32
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65
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47
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71
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60
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58
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70
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54
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44
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32
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69
Chicago 10
xx
Children of Huang Shi, The
83
Chop Shop
46
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78
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30
Cover
49
Dark Matter
35
Deal
62
Dhamma Brothers, The
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
83
Edge of Heaven, The
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58
Fall, The
43
Favor, The
58
First Saturday in May, The
57
Flawless
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx
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44
Frontier(s)
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Fugitive Pieces
41
Funny Games
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
61
Girls Rock!
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57
Grand, The
58
Hats Off
68
Honeydripper
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
67
Jellyfish
51
Jihad for Love, A
xx
Kiss the Bride
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
72
Life of Reilly, The
50
Look
65
Married Life
35
Meet Bill
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
55
Mister Lonely
52
My Blueberry Nights
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
55
Noise
63
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83
Paranoid Park
55
Pathology
48
Penelope
90
Persepolis
62
Planet B-Boy
xx
Plumm Summer, A
67
Praying with Lior
46
Previous Engagement, A
72
Priceless
80
Reprise
71
Roman de gare
48
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85
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24
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Without the King
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XXY
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Young@Heart
45
Zombie Strippers
97
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
92
Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
90
Up the Yangtze
90
Persepolis
87
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Savages, The
83
Paranoid Park
83
Chop Shop
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Edge of Heaven, The
82
Taxi to the Dark Side
80
Reprise
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Unforeseen, The
76
Stuff and Dough
75
Young@Heart
75
Witnesses, The
75
Shotgun Stories
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Life of Reilly, The
71
Standard Operating Procedure
71
Roman de gare
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Blindsight
70
Caramel
69
Chicago 10
68
Surfwise
68
Honeydripper
67
Snow Angels
67
Praying with Lior
67
Jellyfish
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Son of Rambow
66
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
66
Unsettled
66
Shelter
65
Battle for Haditha
65
Married Life
64
Water Lilies
63
XXY
63
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
63
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
63
Blind Mountain
62
Planet B-Boy
62
Dhamma Brothers, The
61
Girls Rock!
60
Body of War
59
Under the Same Moon
58
First Saturday in May, The
58
Fall, The
58
Hats Off
58
Bra Boys
57
Flawless
57
Teeth
57
Fugitive Pieces
57
Without the King
57
Grand, The
56
Then She Found Me
55
Vice
55
Turn the River
55
Tracey Fragments, The
55
Mister Lonely
55
Noise
55
Pathology
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
54
Cashback
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Jihad for Love, A
50
Sangre de mi sangre
50
Look
49
Dark Matter
48
Run, Fat Boy, Run
48
Penelope
47
Bella
47
Boarding Gate
46
CJ7
46
Previous Engagement, A
45
Zombie Strippers
45
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
44
Frontier(s)
44
Chaos Theory
43
Anamorph
43
Favor, The
41
Funny Games
40
Sleepwalking
37
Life Before Her Eyes, The
35
Meet Bill
35
Babysitters, The
35
Deal
32
Backseat
32
Chapter 27
30
Cover
24
Sex and Death 101
20
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
xx
Tashan
xx
Plumm Summer, A
xx
Children of Huang Shi, The
xx
Kiss the Bride
xx
War, Inc.
xx
Jack and Jill vs. the World
xx
From Within
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Lions Gate Films Inc.
MPAA 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.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Olivia Hetreed
Tracy Chevalier (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Peter Webber
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 4, 2004
Video: May 4, 2004
Theatrical: December 12, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
95 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK / Luxembourg |

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...
100
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Look closely at Johansson...an immaculate period performance. [15 December 2003, p. 119]
100
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.

100
USA Today
Claudia Puig
A rich gem expertly told in a surprisingly scant 95 minutes.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
A quiet movie, shaken from time to time by ripples of emotional turbulence far beneath the surface.

90
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.

90
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.

90
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
This is an art film in spades.

90
Variety
Todd McCarthy
An intelligent, visually ravishing adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel.

83
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.

83
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.

80
Empire
Natasha Aitken
one of the rare book adaptations that actually benefits from a visual makeover.

80
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.

80
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.

80
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.

80
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Webber spins a slight but considerably enchanting tale of impossible romance and artistic discovery.

75
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.

75
Premiere
Kelly Borgeson
The film is well-paced and surprisingly suspenseful.

75
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.

75
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?

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
If movies were still silent, Girl With a Pearl Earring would be a near-masterpiece.

75
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.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Provocative.

75
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.

75
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.

70
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.

70
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
The period detail is more vibrant than the minimal story.

70
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.

63
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.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
Girl With a Pearl Earring is really about watching paint dry. S l o w l y.

60
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.

60
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.

60
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?

60
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Eye caviar that doesn't pretend to be much else.
60
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.

60
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.

60
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.

50
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.

50
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.


The average user rating for this movie is 6.7 (out of 10) based on 33 User Votes
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