Best movie of this year hands down!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I had seen this movie years ago when it first came out and while it isn't the best movie ever made, I enjoyed it. First of all, it's original. Based on Vreeland's book, the author presents us with the idea of a lost Vermeer painting. What an exciting thought because it's believable! We live in a world where treasures from sunken ships are retrieved and Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered. Why not a lost painting? And then she creates a whole history of that painting. I have not read Vreeland's book, but I may if only to read the description of the painting, which must have been quite good in order for someone to be able to create the painting shown in the movie. It makes me wonder who actually painted "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" for the movie. I will search a bit more to find out. I'll bet other people will too. Any movie that inspires you to search further whether it be to look at the real Vermeer paintings and discover an appreciation for art or perhaps to read a book written by Vreeland or Russo (Richard Russo wrote the script for this movie and has also written one of my favorite books) is worth while.

This movie is a decent adaptation of the novel--however, reading the novel is almost necessary in order to get the depth of the characters' struggles throughout the film. I have used this film with students studying Vreeland's novel and they have found it a wonderful aid in comprehending the novel. While I am sure many have read the novel and enjoyed it, there is a deeper subtext that the novel implies that is not captured in the film. In each story there is a child/parent relationship that is pivotal to meaning of the painting to that particular owner. I enjoyed the performances---especially Glenn Close, who truly captured the craziness of the character Cornelius from the novel and the story of Magdelena was well told.

This made for TV movie presented by Hallmark was something I looked forward to seeing this Sunday, since it dealt with the painter Johannes Vermeer (a favorite painter of mine) and how a certain painting of his got in the hands of an eccentric woman and her father. The woman is Glenn Close, looking very mousy and spinster-ish, she tells the story to a young man (Thomas Gibson) of how that painting turned out to be in her family. The performance by Kelly Macdonald (Gosford Park) is the highlight of the movie as she plays it like a young Kate Winslet, with a lot of fire and mischief in her eyes. The performances were much better for an actuall theatrical release. Too bad the ending was rather lame, and left many questions unanswered about Glenn Close's character. Still, if you have a fascination with paintings and the stories behind them, this is truly a nice piece of Made for TV fanfare. If you still want more, watch the movie "The Red Violen" for a similiar story and intrigue.

I suffered through half this film before I switched to "Dr. Strangelove" on TCM. It is yet more proof that the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" has become hopelessly bad. Glenn Close misleadingly gets top billing, and delivers a magnificent performance, but she is in less than a third of the film. Her performance as an art enthusiast makes everyone else, including the usually reliable Ellyn Burstyn, seem even worse.The film, following the pattern of such films as "The Red Violin", tells the stories of several owners of a beautiful lost Vermeer painting through the centuries. Perhaps the producers of this mawkish telefilm were hoping that lightning would strike twice, but if so, they forgot the need for subtle writing and direction, which are both hopelessly sentimental and hardly above the level of soap opera in this film. Ms. Close, as if sensing this, gives a performance that wipes away everyone else. In fact, the acting, with the exception of Close, is uniformly bad, as if we were watching a bad daytime drama in period costume.The people who made this film obviously thought that by tackling an intellectual, sophisticated subject like a great Vermeer painting they could give the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" the class it once had, but they forgot to leave behind their recent tendency for corny writing and dramatics.