Review of Loving Vincent (2017) by Dawdlingpoet — 20 Nov 2021

This is an extraordinary film - the painting style animation looks visually amazing and the story is compelling, although, inevitably, sad. I found the various characters intriguing and I found it a very watchable film. I believe it took many years to make, due to the traditional paint based animation and it shows. I felt like I could see the emotion in the various characters eyes, with hints of teardrops appearing in the corners of their eyes and the like.

I am quite a big fan of animation, have always been since a child, so this film had appealed to me for a long time and I honestly can't say it disappointed. I was both interested to see it in terms of the painting work used to create it but also in terms of being interested in the story of the troubled person who was Vincent Van Gogh and this film certainly taught me more about him. I was aware of his time spent in Arles, in France, having visited the area a few summers ago and this place features in the film, so I found it very interesting, with good voice work from the cast, including Josh Burdett, Holly Earl, John Sessions, Helen McCrory and Chris O'Dowd.

Even if your not especially keen on Van Gogh, I would still recommend it as a different type of film from 'regular' CGI based animation or the like. However, I should probably point out that this is rated 12 in the UK due to the theme of mental illness being inevitably present but also there was a scene depicting a prostitute with a customer and the infamous gifting of Vincents cut ear is also depicted, so I wouldn't recommend it be shown to pre-teens certainly.