Gifted performer Stanly Tucci gets behind the camera for this watch-the-paint-dry movie about the final days of eccentric artist Alberto Giacometti. The selling pitch claimed it was a look at the life of the celebrated artist but, the audience comes away knowing absolutely nothing about his life - save that fact he was damaged goods. About all this rather stretched-out movie shows us is several weeks or so during the creation of one portrait. Here, Stanly Tucci writes the script & directs Australian character actor Geoffrey Rush - who gives us another studied performance as this selfish, self-doubting artist. Everyone in Giacometti's life suffers one way or another, including his wife and remarkably patient brother Diego who, as Alberto's studio assistant, manages to shrug off his frustrating waste of time, talent and money. It seems that Award winning Cinematographer Danny Cohen (the Kings Speech) uses cheap hand-Held cameras for this shoot - to give the actors free movement and keep production costs well down. With a running time of 90mins, unless, 'Less-is-More' for you, this may be a rather thin and boring experience & probably would have been far better as a short or featurette. Otherwise, mainly for the dedicated art set.
Review of Final Portrait
