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Review

Adapted from the novel by Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring is named for a painting by Johannes Vermeer, which poses a story behind the overtly seductive portrait atypical of the artist's style of subtle domestic interiors. In Delf, Holland, Griet (Johansson), a young Protestant girl, is sent by her destitute parents to work as a maid in the home of the Catholic painter Vermeer (Firth). Once in the house of the Flemish Master, she soon becomes an object of his fascination and a creature of suspension with regards to his neurotic wife Catharine (Davis). Though Griet is courted by the local butcher’s son, she is drawn to the painter. Vermeer’s patron, Van Ruijven (Wilkinson), also desires the young girl and commissions a portrait in order to get access to her. The film is visually impressive, with wide sweeping camera shots of canals and cityscapes, and a sparkling use of light — it's a highly polished, evocative period film.