Van Gogh paintings spring to life in eye-popping 'Loving Vincent'
<b>“Loving Vincent” - ★ ★ ★ </b>
“Loving Vincent” is, indisputably, a technical achievement. Each one of the ambitious animated film's 65,000 frames is an oil painting, created by a classically trained artist in the style - or, rather, in the various styles - of painter Vincent Van Gogh. More than 100 painters worked together to create the film, which follows an acquaintance of the artist who is trying to uncover how and why Van Gogh died in 1890, at 37.
Visually, it's spectacular. Conceptually, it's jaw-dropping.
The story, however, doesn't always hold its own.
Husband-and-wife filmmakers Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman directed the drama, which they wrote with Jacek Dehnel. The tale begins one year after Van Gogh has died, purportedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Joseph Roulin (voice of Chris O'Dowd), a friend of the artist whom Van Gogh immortalized in portraiture, tasks his son Armand (Douglas Booth) with delivering the last letter that Van Gogh wrote before dying - one addressed to the artist's brother Theo.
Armand's journey takes the first of several detours once he realizes that Theo, too, is dead. So Armand travels to Auvers-sur-Oise, the town where Van Gogh died, in an effort to understand what happened. What starts out as an investigation into the suicide of a man - whose depression and anxiety seemed to be lifting just before his death - turns into a whodunit.
In reality, much of the potential murder mystery feels like an excuse to merely revisit characters and scenes from Van Gogh's art. Watching “Loving Vincent” involves something of an Easter egg hunt, as viewers may try to pick out the famous works of art from among its scenes.
Van Gogh's 1890 portrait of Adeline Ravoux - the daughter of innkeepers at the house where Van Gogh died - may not be his best-known work, but the character of Adeline (Eleanor Tomlinson), who has plenty of theories about the enigmatic artist, makes a deep impression.
At times, the narrative drags. Yet, there is nevertheless a thrill in watching static images spring to life as complex characters and dynamic landscapes. “Loving Vincent” is itself an imaginative work of art. And what better way than that to honor its subject?
<b>Starring:</b> Douglas Booth, Chris O'Dowd, Eleanor Tomlinson
<b>Directed by:</b> Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman
<b>Other:</b> A Good Deed Entertainment release. Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, thematic material and smoking. At Chicago's Music Box Theatre. 94 minutes