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| Willem Dafoe in full suffering Christ Mode |
Julian Schnabel's At Eternity's Gate is the umpteenth film version of Vincent Van Gogh's struggles, focusing on the last few years of his life. Schnabel uses a handheld camera so the audience can see things from Vincent's point of view and experience his disorientation. This results in an unfocused film that juggles mental health issues, religious philosophy, aesthetics, the beauty of nature and far too many balls of wax to provide coherence. Even Lust for Life, perhaps the corniest version of Van Gogh's life, at least provides a comprehensible artistic vision.
Schnabel is too talented to make a worthless film. Sections of Vincent painting and sketching have a genuine feel of artistic quest to them. The acting is generally first rate, particularly Niels Arestrup as a crazed veteran. However, the overall effect is scattershot. Schnabel always displays visual imagination, but only The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in his corpus stands out as a wholly satisfying film. (08/05/19)
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