The Last Vermeer

    The Last Vermeer
    2019

    Synopsis

    A soldier and member of the Dutch resistance investigates stolen art in the wake of the Second World War, including a Vermeer sold to the Nazis by a flamboyant forger.

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    Cast

    • Guy PearceHan van Meegeren
    • Claes BangJoseph Piller
    • Vicky KriepsMinna Holmberg
    • Roland MøllerEsper Dekker
    • August DiehlAlex De Klerks
    • Karl JohnsonBernard Bakker
    • Andrew HavillMaarten Wooning
    • Paul BentallChief Judge
    • Olivia GrantCootje Henning
    • Adrian ScarboroughDirk Hannema

    Recommendations

    • 70

      The Hollywood Reporter

      Despite the sometimes clumsy exposition, Lyrebird turns out to be an enjoyable melodrama.
    • 70

      Variety

      This isn’t the kind of storytelling that flatters the audience’s intelligence, and yet, spelling things out ensures that viewers who don’t like to work too hard can follow along easily and focus on the film’s other pleasures — namely, Pearce’s performance and the twisty case of the missing “Vermeer.”
    • 63

      Movie Nation

      The courtroom finale, eating up much of the third act, is a corker. And Pearce holds our focus, still or animated, chewing up a scene or so underplaying it he’s still the center of attention. Like the Great Master he is, he knows how to grab the eye and hold its focus, with or without a menacing mustache.
    • 63

      Washington Post

      It’s the film’s exploration of the ethical bartering conducted by van Meegeren — not his expertise as a copyist or his skill as a swindler — that linger after the closing credits.
    • 63

      Boston Globe

      It’s handsomely filmed, well-acted, and hollower than it wants to be, with a mid-movie revelation that rearranges the moral stakes in ways that dampen the telling.
    • 60

      Arizona Republic

      Not just an enjoyable story to watch but an educational look into hidden history that seeks to show its never a good idea to paint anyone with a broad brush.
    • 58

      The A.V. Club

      There’s no reason why this couldn’t have been good hokey pseudo-historical fun along the lines of, say, The Imitation Game. (Let’s just ignore that some folks perceived that film as Oscar-worthy.) All it required was putting the exceptional character front and center throughout, rather than shrouding his gift in pointlessly vague mystery.
    • 50

      Screen Daily

      All the lavish sets and gorgeous costumes in the world – and they are here – can’t quite cover over the cracks in Friedkin’s canvas, constructed by three writers from a non-fiction book.