Final Portrait

The artist Alberto Giacometti (Rush) meets a friend in Paris called James Lord (Hammer). He wants to paint his portrait and thinks it might take a day or two. However as it progresses and Lord enters into Giacometti world, it takes longer and longer but also becomes harder and harder to escape from its chaos.

Stanley Tucci is a skilled actor. So when it came about that he would direct and direct a film about a artist who re framed the portrait I was sold. The end product is a let down but not in the conventional sense of it being terrible in say acting or direction, in the edit or in the facets of production. These sort of films are often reviewed in this way, almost like the case of locating the loose nail in the floorboards.This type of analysis however makes for empty conclusions and if I use an example I can define why. Take the actors. Rush is very good and keeps the tone and even the manners, shaped. His accent misfires occasionally but he is and always I feel will be, an actor of richness. Armie Hammer is also very good and I am becoming more and more sold on his talents and wish to see more of his work (like Andrew Garfield who is becoming an actor of depth).

The films problem is that it is that someone should ask ' is it just me or should this not have been made?' Little of what is on offer is no revelation or interesting. The life of Giacometti is well documented and he was many a bad thing. This makes for a film that has a very unlikable lead who when we spend ever more increasing levels of time with, grow to dislike and care nothing for. A sad truth is that the audience then disengages and watches either out of some sadistic urge to see it through or worse still because they want something to befall him. Sad but so often true...