Loving Vincent is just your average feature film, other than the fact that every single frame has been oil painted by hand. This leads to a very clever way to tell a story about one of the greatest artists to ever live. The film was first shot as a normal movie, then a team of around 100 artists painted each frame to create what I would say is one of the most visually unique films I've ever seen.
The films takes place after the death of Vincent Van Gogh, and follows a young man trying to deliver a letter to Vincent's brother. In doing so, he finds himself caught up in the mystery of Van Gogh's death, trying to piece it together through multiple conflicting stories, all told through black and white flashbacks. The audience is then taken on a journey through the last weeks of the great Vincent Van Gogh's life, shown in the only way one can show a story of Van Gogh.
Douglas Booth plays the man we follow throughout the film, Armand Roulin. His role is unfortunately one of the down-points I found in this film. While he doesn't necessarily act badly, his character is poorly developed, but his performance does nothing to make up for that. So what we are left with is a character we know nothing about, and there is nothing about his performance to latch on to, making some of the scenes he carries a lot less interesting than they could be. Luckily, most of the remaining ensemble cast is very good, making the film overall very enjoyable. Game of Thrones' Jerome Flynn plays Doctor Gachet in a lot of the flashbacks as well as some scenes with Roulin towards the end, and turns in a great performance. His character is very multidimensional as he is both a friend and doctor to Van Gogh, as well as an aspiring artist that was told not to pursue his dream. Obviously Van Gogh is important in this story and he is portrayed very well by Robert Gulaczyk. While he isn't given much dialogue, the physical acting he does in the flashback scenes is very powerful. Another stand out is Elanor Tomlinson, who plays Adeline Ravoux. I found her performance very captivating, stealing pretty much every scene she was in. Two well known actors featured in small roles in this film are Chris O'Dowd and Saoirse Ronan. O'Dowd is given very little screen time, and while Ronan has a bit more, she doesn't do anything to make her performance memorable.
Now onto the visuals. First off I want to congratulate all of the artists on a beautiful movie. The hand painted scenes make for artwork that you could easily hang up around a fancy house or an art gallery. One shot in particular blew me away as it stared out a train window at a small village, with Armand Roulin's reflection also in the window. I don't know what it is about that shot but I thought it was beautiful. While I think this movie is gorgeous I think it brings up some issues. First of all, I think this style is much better suited for a short film, with one person painting. All artists have their own styles and you can tell through watching this film, as the style of the paintings changes throughout, and while it's cool to see a lot of different artists' work, the constant changing appearance distracted me quite a bit. Since each frame had to be painted, the strokes and shades within each shot change quite a bit. While at times it made for interesting visuals it was again something that distracted me a lot. However, I'd say those distractions were well worth it for the visual treat this film was.
The script is where this film lost me a bit. As I said earlier, the main character isn't written well, and this makes it less interesting to follow his journey. Pretty much every character is underdeveloped, even Van Gogh, making it hard to gain interest in any characters. I luckily found the mystery of Van Gogh's death very captivating, but I would have loved to know more about all the people he was around in his last weeks. There is also some very bad dialogue in some areas. The dialogue is well written for the most part, but it is so bad in some scenes I can't ignore it. One scene featuring Booth and Ronan for example, is so poorly written and acted that it felt like part of another movie. Luckily there is only one or two other scenes with dialogue near that bad but I was really taken out of it by that sequence.
This film is absolutely beautiful, and is easily one of the most visually ambitious films out there. While I think the writing and the boring lead prevent this film from being great, it is still something special as it is the first ever oil painted film. I would definitely suggest people see this movie if they can, even just to enjoy its visuals.
Rating: 4/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
The films takes place after the death of Vincent Van Gogh, and follows a young man trying to deliver a letter to Vincent's brother. In doing so, he finds himself caught up in the mystery of Van Gogh's death, trying to piece it together through multiple conflicting stories, all told through black and white flashbacks. The audience is then taken on a journey through the last weeks of the great Vincent Van Gogh's life, shown in the only way one can show a story of Van Gogh.
Douglas Booth plays the man we follow throughout the film, Armand Roulin. His role is unfortunately one of the down-points I found in this film. While he doesn't necessarily act badly, his character is poorly developed, but his performance does nothing to make up for that. So what we are left with is a character we know nothing about, and there is nothing about his performance to latch on to, making some of the scenes he carries a lot less interesting than they could be. Luckily, most of the remaining ensemble cast is very good, making the film overall very enjoyable. Game of Thrones' Jerome Flynn plays Doctor Gachet in a lot of the flashbacks as well as some scenes with Roulin towards the end, and turns in a great performance. His character is very multidimensional as he is both a friend and doctor to Van Gogh, as well as an aspiring artist that was told not to pursue his dream. Obviously Van Gogh is important in this story and he is portrayed very well by Robert Gulaczyk. While he isn't given much dialogue, the physical acting he does in the flashback scenes is very powerful. Another stand out is Elanor Tomlinson, who plays Adeline Ravoux. I found her performance very captivating, stealing pretty much every scene she was in. Two well known actors featured in small roles in this film are Chris O'Dowd and Saoirse Ronan. O'Dowd is given very little screen time, and while Ronan has a bit more, she doesn't do anything to make her performance memorable.
Now onto the visuals. First off I want to congratulate all of the artists on a beautiful movie. The hand painted scenes make for artwork that you could easily hang up around a fancy house or an art gallery. One shot in particular blew me away as it stared out a train window at a small village, with Armand Roulin's reflection also in the window. I don't know what it is about that shot but I thought it was beautiful. While I think this movie is gorgeous I think it brings up some issues. First of all, I think this style is much better suited for a short film, with one person painting. All artists have their own styles and you can tell through watching this film, as the style of the paintings changes throughout, and while it's cool to see a lot of different artists' work, the constant changing appearance distracted me quite a bit. Since each frame had to be painted, the strokes and shades within each shot change quite a bit. While at times it made for interesting visuals it was again something that distracted me a lot. However, I'd say those distractions were well worth it for the visual treat this film was.
The script is where this film lost me a bit. As I said earlier, the main character isn't written well, and this makes it less interesting to follow his journey. Pretty much every character is underdeveloped, even Van Gogh, making it hard to gain interest in any characters. I luckily found the mystery of Van Gogh's death very captivating, but I would have loved to know more about all the people he was around in his last weeks. There is also some very bad dialogue in some areas. The dialogue is well written for the most part, but it is so bad in some scenes I can't ignore it. One scene featuring Booth and Ronan for example, is so poorly written and acted that it felt like part of another movie. Luckily there is only one or two other scenes with dialogue near that bad but I was really taken out of it by that sequence.
This film is absolutely beautiful, and is easily one of the most visually ambitious films out there. While I think the writing and the boring lead prevent this film from being great, it is still something special as it is the first ever oil painted film. I would definitely suggest people see this movie if they can, even just to enjoy its visuals.
Rating: 4/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
I agree with you for the most part - the visuals are indeed stunning and captivating, and one might say distracting from the story as I found myself enthralled with the moving paintings and the dialogue was more akin to background music. I actually quite enjoyed the story and it is truly one of a kind! In fact it might be worth watching again - I think you would appreciate it even more!
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