Review of Loving Vincent (2017) by Magnus S — 08 Feb 2018

This is a film that will be shown in schools and taught in art classes. Absolutely stunning visually, so wonderful to finally see! This film is the first fully painted animated feature film, and unfortunately, that is the one thing going for this film. Every scene is so beautiful, every brush stroke. There are black and white flashback scenes that are so realistically painted, for a brief moment I actually forgot I was watching a painted film. The way the backgrounds are emphasized in any given scene, second by second, how the clouds moved across the sky. How a river would flow, the wind blowing leaves down the road, or even the change of sunlight shown on a character's clothing. Subtle moments such as these really make this film stand out. Each of the film's 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, using the same technique as van Gogh, created by a team of 125 amazing painters.

It would be unfair for me to only praise this very unique animation style-despite that it deserves every bit of praise-and touch on nothing else. The story is a murder mystery, taking place one year after Vincent van Gogh's death, diving deep into whether the death was the result of a suicide or a possible murder. You may be mesmerized by the amazing visuals, but once you begin paying attention to the story, it may immediately take you out. The script isn't great, which draws away from what you are seeing on the screen. The story touches very briefly on van Gogh's life, relationship with his brother, and the mutilation of his ear. It leaves much desired when those aspects are so much more interesting within this story, than the issue at hand.

Absolutely amazing cast, but even here lies a problem. Taking place in France, the entire cast consists of English and Irish actors; their accents are so noticeable, their voices alone are enough to pull you out of a scene. Saoirse Ronan and Chris O'Dowd, two Irish actors I adore, and I had the hardest time feeling any legitimacy in their French characters with such hard Irish accents. The same goes for Jerome Flynn and Helen McCrory, two stellar English actors, but portraying French characters their accents took me right out of their scenes. Now this may not affect other people seeing this film, but it was extremely noticeable for me and quite jarring. I can't help but wonder if the film would have been done better justice by keeping it a short film.