Masterful Movie

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Movie that wants to entertain rather than question, educate or explore. In order to do so it deviates rather sharply from the truth. Now this is a strange choice, given the fact that it treats one of the most striking and bizarre criminal cases in Dutch (art) history. As a result one would suppose that the material writes itself. But I suppose that the makers of the movie were looking for a way in which to add large dollops of sex and romantic passion.So you do get large dollops of sex and passion, complete with a Mysterious Muse, but you will have to provide your own questions (and answers) with regard to deeper themes such as the relationship between art and power, the construction of national identity through art, the limits of critical judgment, the influence of fashion on our capability to recognize beauty, and so on. However, the movie, superficial as it is, DOES entertain. The locations and costumes are superb and the various actors do their best. Moreover, it will kindle many a dark emotion in the heart of artists (or would-be artists) who dream of taking revenge on critics, editors, managers or public.

Han van Meegeren (1889 -1947) a Dutch painter, portraitist and restorer was one of the most successful art forgers in history; it is estimated that he duped buyers out of the equivalent of fifty million dollars in today's money. He was not successful as a painter, his work outside of the main currents of the time (impressionism, cubism); critics qualified his work as "derivative" and worse, although he had commercial success painting portraits of wealthy socialites. Stung by lack of recognition and fascinated by the Dutch old masters, Van Meegeren decided to prove his talents by forging the work of some of history's foremost artists like Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer (he was reputed to have produced more Vermeers than Vermeer himself). His methods were sophisticated enough to fool the foremost art critics and specialists of his time, although his forgeries yielded to more recent techniques involving radioactive isotopes and gas chromatography.Van Meegeren's career had a spectacular ending in a trial after WWII where he had the choice of being executed as a collaborator and traitor during the Nazi occupation or owning up to his forgeries. Unexpectedly, at the end of the trial he became a hero to the Dutch.This movie has been filmed in the somewhat breathless-over-the-top style of an American TV movie, and takes some liberties with the facts. It is, however, very entertaining and will teach you something worth learning, the life of a man that was tops in his profession, however questionable that profession might have been. Production values, cinematography and direction are excellent; acting could be a little more restrained here and there but is good too. Worth watching.