Loving Vincent (2017)

PG, BreakThru Productions, 94 mins.



The first ever hand-painted film, this tells the largely uncharted story of the infamously reclusive painter Vincent Van Gogh - through using the medium he became synonymous with.

  Constructed entirely out of oil paint, a team of thousands of animators from all over the world painstakingly create a world of trains, sun-dappled landscapes and many - quite literally - colourful characters.

 Not a lot is known about this enigmatic figure, even less about the events which occurred directly after his death. How much is dramatised is an open question, but it makes for an interesting, if not always gripping, narrative device nonetheless.

 Boyish detective Armand (Douglas Booth) meets a varied array of individuals to try and deduce exactly how a troubled and often volatile Van Gogh, died under suspicious (or perhaps not so suspicious) circumstances.

  Booth has had a phenomenal slate of roles to his name over the last few years. From playing Boy George, to privileged party boys Harry (The Riot Club) and Anthony (Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None) and a flamboyant Vaudevillian impresario in this autumn’s criminally underrated serial-killer chiller The Limehouse Golem, he’s a versatile, polished and incredibly focused actor - and Armand is no exception. Relatable, subtle and unassuming, it’s another performance which absolutely anchors the film.

  There is also a Poldark reunion, with Aidan Turner and a particularly brilliant, very natural Eleanor Tomlinson as the daughter of the owner of a provincial café.

‘You want to know so much about his death, but what do know of his life?’ inquires an aloof maid.

  There may not always be a great deal of substance or new information about our deliberately elusive titular character.

However, it’s executed in such a genuinely state-of-the-art way, that the mechanisms of the plot somehow become incidental to the artistry. The dazzling images are always alive with movement too: faces change expression, looking temporarily perplexed with incredulity. The actors are filmed using revolutionary motion-capture technology: photographed as normal, with the computer matching their every mannerism. But, as this great achievement demonstrates, innovation coupled with traditional methods work the best…

Rating: * * *