Ambi Halpe

Last night on Netflix, I watched Dan Friedkin and James McGee's film, 'The Last Vermeer' (based on the book, 'The Man Who Made Vermeers' by Jonathan Lopez). I thought the film was in itself a masterpiece of movie-making for all its multi-layered complexities and nuanced subtleties - akin to the traditional technique of an oil painting, using layer upon layer to build up an image conceiving the final desired finish. Like the art of the Dutch master Vermeer himself, I thought the movie makers were masters at capturing the subtle interplay of light and shadow, (good and evil), with the film highlighting a single source of light (truth), creating a sense of depth and realism. The movie, in all honesty, makes you introspectively contemplate all of society's man made rules and concepts around morality, ethics and virtues! Even though the film's denouement was slightly unsatisfying and ambiguous, I came to the conclusion that the very people that society judges as amoral, wicked, sinful and debauched for their impropriety, are the only people who are genuinely honest about their true nature. The rest hide it in pious, sanctimonious, self-righteous deceit and hypocrisy! The movie juxtaposes how society in general fools the world with a pleasing veneer of respectability and gentility - that it is a mask, a show, a display, a façade, a deceptively superficial and attractive appearance, a gloss, to project a sense of opulence, hiding its true nature and ugliness the same way pretentious pseudo-intellectuals, critics, authenticators and valuers of art do. I thought the title 'A Veneer of Vermeer' would have been more apt in terms of a title for this film!