Movie Reviews for Vincent & Theo

Vincent & Theo

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Movie Reviews of Vincent & Theo

Movie Review: A dark film under a bright sun
Summary: 5 Stars

This is my favorite Altman film, and I think arguably his best film. However it is unquestionably the best film on Van Gogh.

My title for this review states that this is a dark film, perhaps a more fitting adjective would have been sober. The overall mood is fairly stern as Vincent's own mood appears to have been as well.

I can understand why some people may feel this film is insipid (although the adjective used by another reviewer was dull), the same way I could understand why many people might feel that Van Gogh's paintings are brutish and simplistic if it weren't for the fact they've constantly been told otherwise by the art establishment. In the end I just believe Altman nailed his subject, and this film ranks as one of the very best biographies on Van Gogh.

Tim Roth's performance was also very very good, and while so was Kirk Douglas' melodramatic performance in Lust for Life (a 1956 Hollywood film about Van Gogh), Roth has probably given us something much closer to the truth.

In short this film probably gets us as close to the reality of Vincent's last few years as we're able to come, and this ironically might be why some people dislike the film. Despite the popular image of Van Gogh as an expressionistic, even manic, personality, he was, the evidence suggests, a pensive, inflexible man who exuded an oppressive seriousness. No matter how much you like his paintings, now, he probably wasn't a person whose company you would have enjoyed, then.

Movie Review: Altman's Worst
Summary: 1 Stars

It seems all the reviewers of this film are big fans of Van Gogh, and who isn't? But it remains a bizarre shame that Robert and Vincent didn't mix well at all. Between a silly script, mediocre acting and absolutely dull photography, this picture is one that neither could sell.

Movie Review: "Now I think I know what you tried to say to me....
Summary: 5 Stars

...How you suffered for your sanity,

How you tried to set them free.

They would not listen, they're not listening still.

Perhaps they never will... "

Don McLean "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)

Robert Altman's "Vincent & Theo" (1990), is as beautiful, powerful, and disturbing as the life of a man who could create the richest, most exiting paintings, who could never paint from his imagination but only by what he saw. How he saw the world around him was extraordinary. The life of the artist was not glamorous, it was depressing and self-destructing but as a result of his Art, we all have became a little richer, happier (even if for a moment) and better.

Based on letters written by Vincent van Gogh to his art-dealer brother Theo, this is a wonderful cinematic biography, perhaps one of the best ever made about the life of a painter. Tim Roth was sensational and Robert Altman IS one of the greatest directors of all times. His film looks at us through Vincent's eyes, and for two hours we are in Vincent's world of madness and genius.

Movie Review: The Best
Summary: 5 Stars

This film is powerful, poetic and highly evocative of the most likely real relationship between Vincent and Theo. You constantly feel the underlying stress and yet great love between the two brothers.
It takes an artist like Robert Altman (and his son Stephen the set designer) to make great film about a great artist.