"Final Portrait" is a British film from this year (2017) that is mostly in the English language, but there are parts in French and Italian too, so a solid set of subtitles may help. Or two. It runs for pretty much exactly and is the most recent effort as writer and director by Oscar nominated actor Stanley Tucci. And unless you count a television documentary episode, this is his first work in both field in a decade (since 2007). And it may very well be his best actually. The film works as both a character study and period piece and this is for a large part thanks to lead actor Geoffrey Rush (looking like a mix of De Niro and Werner Herzog) who plays the central part of painter Alberto Giacometti in here and he is in pretty much all scenes from start to finish. But he is not first-billed because Armie Hammer is also in it from start to finish. But it's not really a thankful role, he has very little to work with here and his character is to Rush what Maguire is to Di Caprio in The Great Gatsby for example or McAvoy to Whitaker in the latter's Oscar winning performance. Even some of the supporting players here, maybe the other Giacometti for example, have better material here. Boy Tony Shalhoub has aged, but then again he is in his sixties, but I just cannot get him out of my head with his black curly hair as Monk. Anyway, there is not a great deal of drama in here I guess. The biggest source for conflict (besides his permanent inner struggles) is probably the artist's relationship with a prostitute and the pimps' involvement with said relationship. It is a relatively slow movie I would say, but it does justice to both subject and the protagonist I would say. Life is slow for him. I don't really think that this is the kind of film that will give Rush lots of awards attention, but maybe I am also a bit biased as I am a huge fan of the Oscar-winning actor from Australia. I don't think anybody else would have played the part better, maybe a few others as good. Anyway, even for somebody with zero interest in painters this was an interesting film. You don't even need to know the name Giacometti before seeing this one. It's all about learning from movies and if you like the director or cast members, then that is more than enough. Go check out this little fairly underseen work. I certainly recommend it and it shows as well that Tucci learned a lot from all the great filmmakers he worked with.
Review of Final Portrait
