I wanted to like this film, but for the entire first half I was constantly distracted by the dots produced by reflections off camera lenses. When I take a photo with those red or yellow or blue dots (because the sun is too direct), I write it off as an error and thank myself for having shot lots of other images from different angles. I have no idea how a professional cameraman could have allowed this to happen over and over again. Near the end, there was a huge line in the middle of the frame for entire scenes. Perhaps this was intended to convey van Gogh´s bleary and confused perspective of his surroundings, but in the first half of the film, the images were *of* van Gogh, and so the same explanation cannot be given.
Aside from the shoddy (and often shaky) camerawork, I found the pace to be entirely too slow, even soporific, and gratuitously so. I do think that Willem Dafoe did a decent job, and he was a good choice, appearance wise, for the role, but overall I found this effort mediocre, as evidenced by the fact that I had to take several breaks to get through it. Of course, I felt the same way about Basquiat, so maybe I just do not share the aesthetic vision and values of Julian Schnabel? At least this ¨biopic by a fellow artist¨ does not present the subject as entirely pathetic. Distance probably helps to temper jealousy.
Aside from the shoddy (and often shaky) camerawork, I found the pace to be entirely too slow, even soporific, and gratuitously so. I do think that Willem Dafoe did a decent job, and he was a good choice, appearance wise, for the role, but overall I found this effort mediocre, as evidenced by the fact that I had to take several breaks to get through it. Of course, I felt the same way about Basquiat, so maybe I just do not share the aesthetic vision and values of Julian Schnabel? At least this ¨biopic by a fellow artist¨ does not present the subject as entirely pathetic. Distance probably helps to temper jealousy.