At Eternity’s Gate (2018)

Directed by Julian Schnabel. Starring Willem Dafoe, Oscar Isaac, Rupert Friend, Mads Mikkelson, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Niels Arestup. [PG-13]

Dramatic portrait of the final years of Vincent Van Gogh (Dafoe), told through his genius-stroke art, fevered mind, and tireless obsessions. Dafoe’s remarkably affecting work ranks with the best of his career, though his performance gets obscured at times by a showy visual palette. Meant to reflect Van Gogh’s mindset and feelings on painting, the restless handheld camera wavers and tilts and crashes into close-ups at whim; the technique is effective when the artist travels into the countryside to catch inspiration in natural light, but tends to be erratic and ostentatious in closer, more confined quarters. Rarely, however, has the act of creating art been realized in such a striking, arousing fashion. The film’s postulation that the artist’s death was not a suicide is bound to rankle those in faithful circles. Title is derived from the name of one of Van Gogh’s paintings, also known as “Sorrowing Old Man.”

74/100