Arts

Film: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Another weekend, another film with Scarlett Johansson. (And yes, once again I'm in the dreaded screen five.)

Released within a week of each other in the UK (and both on show at the London Film Festival last year), it's hard not to compare Girl with a Pearl Earring to Lost in Translation.

The two films share more than their leading actress. In both Scarlet Johansson's character is displaced from her regular life, struggling to understand her new world. In both, they are led to some kind of understanding through a friendship with an older man.

Girl with a Pearl Earring made fine drama. No doubt Colin Firth's moody lurking in shadows provides fertile fodder for many; the film weaves through its plot evenly without dropping pace, but the memory I take away is the colour blue. Set against a backdrop of beige and cream, the use of blue was rare and startling.

Lost in Translation remains my favourite of the two films though. It connected with me on many subtle levels that today's film didn't.