Some of the best documentaries come not from revelations
made before the camera starts rolling, but from subjects that the filmmaker
just finds interesting. Think of the great docs held in high-regard: Hoop Dreams follow a pair of young
basketball players before college and the pros ever come into the picture; Roger & Me was Michael Moore’s
attempt to find out why General Motors decided to destroy his hometown; and the
list goes on.
With Tim’s Vermeer,
filmmakers Penn & Teller (yes, the magicians) focus the camera’s lens on
their friend Tim Jenison, a Texas inventor fascinated by one of the great
mysteries in art history: how 17th-century Dutch Master Johannes
Vermeer was able to paint masterpieces that were near-photorealistic, 150 years
before the invention of the photograph?
Tim has followed his fascination with various subjects into
a pretty comfortable lifestyle, with his inventions bringing millions of dollars.
In his attempts to recapture the exact conditions in which Vermeer worked, he
spends countless dollars on studying and building work spaces of exacting
detail; calling on his family and friends to pose for hours at a time; and even
manages to finagle a private showing of the Vermeer inside the Queen’s private
collection at Buckingham Palace.
While Tim’s story is fairly interesting, one wonders how
much more interesting it would be with a veteran storyteller behind the camera.
While the magical duo of Penn & Teller has charisma to spare on stage, here
they fail their friend in bringing his story to the screen. Even at a short
running time of 80 minutes, it plods along at points, making one wonder if it
would have worked better as a short doc all along.
