Peter Webber's adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's novel is an emotionally chaste, middlebrow period film that's too repressed to make an impression.
Set in 17th-century Delft, it's a supple riff on an interpretation of Vermeer's painting of a servant girl. Webber filters it beautifully through Vermeer's style and Scarlett Johansson's outstanding as the lass who impresses the painter. But Colin Firth makes a routinely grumpy Vermeer and Webber's very meticulousness undoes him: the film feels less alive, more stuffy and academic.
DVD Extras:
Deleted scenes, a Making Of and an anatomy of a scene pad out the stuff on painting, period and setting. There's also two likeable commentaries: one from the producer and director, and the other from Chevalier and the screenwriter. Like the film, it's a solid package with no sparks.
