Girl With a Pearl Earring

Starring Colin Firth, Judy Parfitt, Tom Wilkinson, Scarlett Johansson, Cillian Murphy. Directed by Peter Webber. (PG13, 99 minutes). The film, adapted by Olivia Hetreed from Tracy Chevalier's novel,

A slow, attentive movie about a painter and his model demands patience But Peter Webber's reworking of Tracy Chevalier's novel is worth staying with: it casts a heavy spell as it unfolds the tale of Griet (Scarlett Johansson), a maid newly arrived in the house of Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). The year is 1665, and the period reconstruction of the canal city of Delft is formidably detailed.



above all, the presence of Johansson. She is often wordless and close to plain onscreen, but wait for the ardor with which she can summon a closeup and bloom under its gaze.











Reviewed by Elvis Mitchell

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SLATE ... IN OTHER MAGAZINES

The cover story considers President Obama's inaugural speech—"resolute, suffused with sobriety, reflecting a tough-minded realism at home and abroad"—as an indicator of the strengths he brings to the White House. After a campaign of "speeches [filled] with gaseous oratory," the president's first order of business was to speak to "the nation as a community of mature adults." This bodes well, the author argues, for "the beginning of a whole new era of Obama-inspired and Obama-led citizen involvement." … Another article celebrates Obama's ability to "tap into changes in the culture and encourage them." Because "Obama represents a crossing of cultures," he is an embodiment of contemporary America. One indication that the president might add to cultural mixing is that "the kind of social media the Obama campaign used, like Facebook, also help people broaden their spheres and see how they are connected with people who are different from them."
Economist, Jan. 24
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