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My mom loves the Hallmark Hall of Fame movies—the
ones they show on CBS on Sunday nights. In fact, I think they’re pretty much the only
movies she’ll watch. I, on the other hand, have always stayed away from them, assuming
them to be little more than worthless sap—but I made an exception for Brush with
Fate.
But I had a good reason.
A couple of years ago, I
accompanied my husband on a business trip to the Netherlands. We spent a month in Delft,
a beautiful old town famous for its pottery—as well as for its famous son, artist
Johannes Vermeer. While we were in Delft, the cameras arrived—along with trailers full
of extras and costumes and horses. We soon discovered that they were filming a
made-for-TV movie based on Susan Vreeland’s book, Girl in Hyacinth Blue—a movie
that would eventually a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie called Brush with Fate.
So of course, I had to see it. I missed it on TV, so I was ecstatic to find it on
DVD.
Glenn Close plays Cornelia Englebrecht, a quiet, anti-social prep
school teacher who decides to reveal a long-kept family secret to Richard (Thomas
Gibson), the school’s new art teacher. She shows him a spectacular painting, which she
tells him is “the lost Vermeer.” Though she has no papers to prove the painting’s
authenticity, she has plenty of stories. She’s spent her life researching the history of
the painting and of those who once owned it—and she tells their stories to Richard. Each
story tells of a person who loved the painting—who fought to keep it but eventually had
to let it go. She even tells the story of Magdalena, Vermeer’s daughter, the girl who
modeled for the painting. And finally, she tells her own story—the story of how her
father came to own the painting.
While I haven’t read Girl in Hyacinth
Blue yet, I’ve heard wonderful things about it. I think, however, that while
attempting to capture the story on film, the filmmakers ran into a few problems—and
understandably so. It’s difficult to condense 250 pages into 100 minutes—especially when
those 250 pages are filled with several different stories. Although those that were
selected were interesting stories, they were all quite short, which made it difficult to
really connect to any of the characters. And when the closing credits rolled, I was
still left with a number of unanswered questions—like why Cornelia would show Richard the
painting and what she expected him to do about it.
At the same time, this
is an impressive production for a made-for-TV movie. It was shot on location, of course,
and the scenery is spectacular. And the story, despite its flaws, is enchanting. If
you’re an art enthusiast, you’ll be intrigued by the story of this one painting that
touched the lives of so many different people through the centuries. If you’re a
sappy-drama kind of movie-lover, you’ll enjoy the stories of love and loss and commitment
and responsibility. For the rest of you, don’t expect an Oscar-worthy film, but don’t
let the Hallmark Hall of Fame stamp scare you away, either. You might just like
it.
