Review: Loving Vincent

Loving Vincent is a film I consistently admired while rarely being engaged with. The admiration comes easily as the film exists of 65,000 oil paintings from 125 painters to create a uniquely beautiful film. The film is an achievement, a first of its kind. I wish the storytelling had captured the same energy.

The film is structure not unlike Citizen Kane as we follow Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth) as he searches for Theo Van Gogh, Vincent's brother. Along the way, Armand learns of the important role Theo played in Vincent's transformation into an art sensation in Paris. Woven into the various accounts that Armand hears is a mystery surrounding whether or not Vincent Van Gogh took his own life or was shot by a bully.

Directors Hugh Welchman and Dorota Kobiela shot the film with real actors including Chris O'Dowd, Jerome Flunn and Saoirse Ronan. They then used computers to over-paint the footage, think Richard Linklater's Waking Life. The main difference is that real paint was used. This creates a wonderful life to landscapes, all done in Van Gogh signature style. There is a thrill in seeing some of his painting come to life here. The film has a surreal quality to it that doesn't always match the more straightforward narrative. One wishes the film had taken more historical liberty and embraced the dreamlike quality that the oil paintings create.

Loving Vincent will strike any fan of the artist's work. His many famous portraits become the subjects of Armand's conversations. The narrative however has very little momentum. The mystery of Van Gogh's death feels inconsequential to appreciating and understanding the artist and his work. What we are left with is something akin to a one dimensional gimmick. While I regularly awed at the artistry on screen, I rarely connected to the plot.

Loving Vincent is an impressive achievement on one hand and worth your time to watch. It really is only when the film passes the hour mark that the lack of narrative pull may weigh on audiences. In a way, the story is pointless. It never offers much insight into Van Gogh's life or work. However as a stylistic exercise, the film succeeds in inducing a strong appreciation of this master artist.

3/5