Loving Vincent

To decide if this is a film you want to see you need to know three things.

1.  This is the first full length animation to be entirely hand painted in oils, and can be viewed as a piece of history, a landmark in animated cinema.

2.  The plot is clunky, improbable and suffers further from the distractions of the actors accents.  Why does a French postmaster with a strong Irish accent have a cockney for a son?  That postmaster wants to see a letter, written by the now deceased Vincent to his brother Theo, reach its destination, but so far it's been returned as address unknown.  He persuades his wastrel son, Armand, to take the missive and seek out Theo.  But the latter has also died, and Armand finds himself turning detective as he attempts to piece together the story of the painter's death.  Did he really attempt to kill himself, as the official version of events says, or was something more sinister being covered up?  Armand meets several people who knew Vincent in his final weeks, and listens to their stories, eventually returning to his father with his own version of events, and the letter delivered to somewhere where it will be appreciated.  But it tells us little about Van Gogh we didn't already know, and, despite the occasional injection of excitement and mystery, is too pedestrian in the telling.

3.  It's beautiful.  In an extraordinary fashion.  Armand's quest is painted in characteristic Van Gogh style, vibrant impressionist colours and heavy brush strokes adapted to provide movement, expression, life.  The flashbacks are monochrome, with an almost photographic quality at times.  Visually this is the kind of movie you could watch a dozen times over and still pick up on details you'd missed before, so rich is the texturing of the scenes.  It feels strange at first to see well know faces like Chris O'Dowd and John Sessions rendered on screen in mobile oils, but you quickly get used to it.  And there are frequent visual links to the works of Vincent that you get regular flashed of recognition from what's passing before you.

If you are able to accept the shortcomings in point 2, then I can strongly recommend a viewing of this gorgeous film.