Girl with a Pearl Earring
Lions Gate Films | Release Date: December 12, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
9
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Look closely at Johansson...an immaculate period performance. [15 December 2003, p. 119]
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid 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
100
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A rich gem expertly told in a surprisingly scant 95 minutes. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A quiet movie, shaken from time to time by ripples of emotional turbulence far beneath the surface. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
This is an art film in spades. Read full review
90
VarietyTodd McCarthy
An intelligent, visually ravishing adaptation of Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson 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
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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
83
Portland OregonianShawn 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
80
The A.V. ClubKeith 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
80
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
Webber spins a slight but considerably enchanting tale of impossible romance and artistic discovery. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth 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
80
EmpireNatasha Aitken
one of the rare book adaptations that actually benefits from a visual makeover. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley 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
75
ReelViewsJames 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
75
PremiereKelly Borgeson
The film is well-paced and surprisingly suspenseful. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami 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
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Provocative. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam 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
75
Boston GlobeTy 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
75
Rolling StonePeter 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
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? Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
If movies were still silent, Girl With a Pearl Earring would be a near-masterpiece. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. 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
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The period detail is more vibrant than the minimal story. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverLuke 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
63
New York PostJonathan 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
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Girl With a Pearl Earring is really about watching paint dry. S l o w l y. Read full review
60
TimeRichard 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
60
The New York TimesA.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
60
TV Guide MagazineAngel 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
60
SalonCharles 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
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Eye caviar that doesn't pretend to be much else.
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Pretty much the whole movie is a series of poses, static and uninvolving, except for cinematographer Eduardo Serra’s lighting, which makes everything look convincingly Vermeer-ish. I’d like to see what he could do with Rembrandt. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn 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
50
Baltimore SunMichael 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
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie 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
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