I thought to myself, "Oh God, please, not another film about Vincent Van Gogh's life." After watching Loving Vincent (2017) - well I didn't even watch the whole thing; I got about halfway and turned it off and never went back - I felt we didn't need more Vincent. Loving Vincent was a bore despite the crazy amount of effort that went into making it.
At Eternity's Gate would mark my fourth feature film into the life of Vincent Van Gogh (plus one Doctor Who episode where the good Doctor visits the troubled artist and brings him to present day to show him what a success he becomes - it's actually quite a touching episode).
I didn't want to watch At Eternity's Gate but I'm such a film awards whore and Willem Dafoe was nominated for the Golden Globe and the Oscar, so I thought, fine, let's get this over with.
I didn't want to watch At Eternity's Gate but I'm such a film awards whore and Willem Dafoe was nominated for the Golden Globe and the Oscar, so I thought, fine, let's get this over with.
When Dafoe flops from a few lines of French into purely English at the beginning of the film, well I was certain my disdain would be justified. I was entirely wrong. In fact this might be the only thing to criticize about it, that everyone, for the most part, speaks English. If you put this aside, it's a beautiful, thoughtful, and meditative film. I was completely drawn in and time flew by. There are new revelations about Van Gogh which surprised me. And Dafoe! He is really good and deserves his nominations. At Eternity's Gate was a delightful surprise.
Catch it now on Amazon, iTunes, OR
your local video store February 12th, 2019.
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