Review of Loving Vincent (2017) by Isaacj — 03 Jan 2019

Here stands a film perhaps as oddly remarkable as the great artist whose demise it documents; Loving Vincent is a Polish-UK co-production charting the final days (and the shady aftermath of which) of Vincent Van Gogh. But what is truly extraordinary about this film is that it is the first animated film created entirely with oil paints, in the notable style of its eponymous painter. Loving Vincent is an ambitious visual experiment, every frame avowedly hand-painted in a pastiche of Van Gogh’s work. It’s an experiment that certainly works; landscapes swirl dreamily across the screens and oozing strokes of paint litter the faces of the film’s players. There is something strangely ethereal about the animation; it’s utterly immersive and beautiful and surely can be appreciated simply for its flair and the pain-staking commitment required to create it. The film was also shot in live-action beforehand; we see Chris O’Dowd, Saoirse Ronan and the rest of the cast embodied within the brushstrokes, in a strangely satisfying and delightfully expressive way. There’s an effortlessness and innovation to the film’s design; the same cannot be said, however, of its plot.

Though not unenjoyable, Loving Vincent’s plot is rather thin, comprised of exposition-packed flashbacks and uninspired dialogue. Over-narrated and over-simplified, it never really takes flight or makes much of an impact, despite numerous attempts. We watch as young Armand Roulin (Douglas Booth) seeks to deliver a letter, at the request of his father, from a deceased Vincent to his brother, only to become hooked in finding out the truth behind the artist’s death among the witnesses of his final days. The cast, led by Booth, are lively enough, but are not enough to distract one from a flimsy narrative that begins to feel like a tame episode of Poirot. Despite this, the film is entertaining enough and it’s clear that the true intentions of directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman is to impress via the film’s visuals rather than its story.

Loving Vincent is a definite mixed bag of a film; visually, it’s exquisite and never excessively dull, but its formulaic and uninspired plot cannot be ignored. For a movie that claims to be a biopic of Vincent Van Gogh, it tells us very little about the man itself, functioning far more as a standard who-dunnit that is gorgeous to watch but, on occasion, feels self-admiring. An interesting film that is worth watching just for its pure style.