I'm watching this now and I'm growing more impatient by the minute. Usually I like silence in movies but the pauses here within the dialog scream too loudly. Trevor Morgan's wretched performance doesn't help. Ray Liotta is saddled with an Archie Bunker stereotype that wears thin after his first scene. The actors have to constantly fight the inert direction. Not even Mueller-Stahl's solid work here can't save the film from grinding to a slow death. You can always predict the next scene. That's how clichéd it is (Karate Kid anyone). The stationary camera work is unimaginative and does nothing to evoke its subject matter.
Saying all that, this movie delivers to the layman when it comes to lessons in art. The observations on art are basic but astute. There are some decent rules of thumb for anybody to take to a museum or simply when looking at the world. The complexity of shapes and colors in everyday life are explored here in the guise of painting. Ruining all this is a closed-mindedness towards abstract art that doesn't make sense. Painting abstract artists and those who appreciate it as morons and dilettantes contradicts the film's basic message of life as art.
Better pacing, and better acting from the young actor, could have gone a long way to make this film work. For a film about colors and shapes, there is very little here to inspire or at which to marvel. Watch it only for Mueller-Stahl's performance and some minor lessons in how to look at the world.
Saying all that, this movie delivers to the layman when it comes to lessons in art. The observations on art are basic but astute. There are some decent rules of thumb for anybody to take to a museum or simply when looking at the world. The complexity of shapes and colors in everyday life are explored here in the guise of painting. Ruining all this is a closed-mindedness towards abstract art that doesn't make sense. Painting abstract artists and those who appreciate it as morons and dilettantes contradicts the film's basic message of life as art.
Better pacing, and better acting from the young actor, could have gone a long way to make this film work. For a film about colors and shapes, there is very little here to inspire or at which to marvel. Watch it only for Mueller-Stahl's performance and some minor lessons in how to look at the world.