Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Movie:		6.0
Picture:		9.0
Sound:		7.0
Extras:		5.0
Score:		6.0

Director(s):	Peter Greenaway
Writer(s):	Peter Greenaway
Starring:	Emily Holmes • Eva Birthistle • Jodhi May • Jonathan Holmes • Martin Freeman
Genre:	Biopic • Drama • Mystery
Release Date:	September 15, 2009

List Price:	DVD - $19.99
Amazon:

A biopic is a tricky thing to master. Too often it becomes difficult to choose a proper focus, with filmmakers alternately making the mistake of either casting their net too wide or not wide enough. It's impossible to encompass the life of a person -- especially one who has accomplished a lot -- in a single feature-length film. Yet at the same time, it seems wrong and unjust to attempt to reduce a human being to a montage of episodic clips.

With that out of the way, it seems fair to say that Nightwatching actually handles this predicament rather deftly. A fictionalized depiction of a conspiracy theory being (perhaps) unwittingly immortalized in Rembrandt's most famous painting, "The Night Watch," the film succeeds in that it largely focuses on a lesser-known part of a well-known person's life, and it doesn't attempt to tell us too much, but only just enough.

Rembrandt (Martin Freeman) is a young, married, moderately successful painter.  At the beginning of the film he is commissioned to create a mural of a group of militia men in what is initially supposed to be an ostensibly simple gig. From there, the majority of the story focuses on Rembrandt's process in creating the painting, paralleled with the militia group's simultaneous murder plotting. Now, it's a little slow to start, but once Nightwatching really picks up it takes on a suspenseful, sweeping quality. Its pacing undulates steadily, swelling up with sentiment before breaking up the tension with a scene of comic relief. There's also a subtle poetic beauty to to the small gems of dialogue that come up unexpectedly; at one point, while Rembrandt is still in the process of completing the titular painting, a friend asks him, "You going to put us all on a stage in your painting?" and in a way, that's exactly what he does. Rembrandt immortalizes a single moment between a group of men who share an incriminating secret, and with the discerning eye of a painter he manages to comb out and bring certain telling gestures and metaphors to the forefront of his work. The film also focuses on Rembrandt's personal struggles, which are inevitably and irreparably exacerbated by the possibility of this reality. Freeman's Rembrandt is clever and likable, which is fortunate as much of the tension of the film rests on our identification with the painter, who is eventually inextricably linked to a crime he feels he should expose.

The writing takes on a decidedly play-like quality that is a bit jarring at first, but works the longer you watch and the more you grow used to the format. Extended character-revealing monologues address the audience directly, and are interspersed with intimate scenes of poetic exchanges between characters. The set design at times also makes the film look rather theatric, while the meticulous framing of certain scenes makes each still shot appear quite like an intricate painting. Sometimes the two collide in perfect harmony, and that's when the film displays moments of true cinematic beauty, though these moments are not as frequent as one would have liked.

My only substantial problem with the film is a relatively minor complaint within the context, but I do wish Greenaway had taken a a less straightforward approach with the revelation of the conspiracy theory itself; a little ambiguity would have lent itself well to the very sense of dreamy mystery he aims to evoke visually. Sometimes it's better not to over-explain, to instead leave some room for speculation.

DVD Bonus Features

The first disc contains interviews with director Peter Greenway and actors Martin Freeman, Eva Birthistle, and Jodhi May. The second disc contains a a whole other movie: Rembrandt's J'accuse, directed by good old Greenaway himself. It's a full-length documentary that explores the various theories behind the eponymous "Night Watch" painting, and it is thoroughly engaging and informative. But, it did feel a little redundant to watch it in direct succession with its fictionalized counterpart, so I would recommend spacing the viewings apart.