This was produced by Penn Jillette and directed by his partner in magic Teller. It is a movie about a guy painting a single painting. Seriously, a guy (who is an inventor, not a painter) who decided to paint a painting because the style of the painting enthralled him.
Tim Jenison is the guy who decided to paint a Vermeer, and he says that the reason the paintings of Vermeer were interesting to him is the fact that they appear to be lit like a photograph - subtleties of light and color in connection with details and some odd blurring combine to make Vermeer's art very different from everything that came before it. Additionally, there are no sketch lines that you would normally find on a canvas behind the paint. It was as if Vermeer just walked up to the painting and started to trace what was already there.
So, Tim goes through the process of trying to figure out how exactly it was done. He experiments with a different way that lenses and mirrors could be used to project an image and allow him to essentially copy the real life image before him. Then, he makes paints in the same way that Vermeer would have and builds a replica of Vermeer's studio and he goes through the process that Vermeer might have used to try to duplicate the results as closely as possible.
He is encouraged by Penn on several occasions, and the director uses this as a way to explain the process by having Tim explain to Penn rather than the camera. It's nice to break up the omnipotent narrator and the exposition from Tim in front of the camera in a reality-show-style confessional.
Honestly, the end result is fantastic. The fact that a man who claims to have minimal artistic skill was capable of putting out this artwork is amazing. The fact that he had to go through this process of figuring out how it was done first was staggeringly difficult to the point that I really wonder if it was worth the effort for Vermeer in the first place or for Tim this time around. I guess you're supposed to suffer for art, and Tim put out a lot of cash, a lot of effort, and I think even he questions the logic behind having done this.
Directing was great
Editing was excellent
Cinematography was good
Writing was very good
4.25/5