Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

I checked this out because of the cover. IN the opening scenes, Glenn Close acts so well I sat through the rest of the film, even though she did only the intro and the outro. Her eccentric, somewhat blind old academic was a stereotype, but I won't discuss it further because it would turn into a spoiler. Suffice to say, much of the movie that came after went a little over the top, full of exaggerated conflicts and exaggerated emotions. The interesting part of the film is the structure. It's an ass-backward way to doing history. I imagine Close's character, who narrates the stories to her colleague, opened one can of worms in her investigation only to raise a question about an earlier time, and so on, and that's how she tells the story. A little confusing at first, but when I figured it out, I spent time after making the connections.. That's how it runs, and in that way, it's interesting.

I assumed, when I grabbed a Hallmark film with the "FHE" label on it, that whatever I was going to watch would be safe. Granted there was no vulgarity and really the film had a lot of wonderful things about it as far as being entertaining. However, I would never recommend it.. especially for families.. This is why: it portrays a woman burying her baby alive, and a pregnant woman's belly being attacked by her crazy brother with a stick with a nail through it. Both being images that one finds it hard to shake off.. especially when it comes upon you so unexpectedly. The idea of the film was fabulous.. but the content was offensive to me, especially when I considered the source... and trusted the source. Perhaps it was true to the book.. I don't know.. but if it is true to the book- then it wasn't good for FHE or Hallmark or anyone with a reputation for safe films to do.

Terrible story, cardboard characters, badly acted overall, but especially by the dutch actors (the guy playing Johannes Vermeer tops it all, the perfect example of 'how-not-to-act-even-in-a-Hallmark-production'). Yes, even Glenn Close (despite the glasses and sweater)delivers a non-performance. Who is waiting for nonsense like this? Go see Girl with a Pearl Earring if you like time-pieces set in rural medieval Holland. The utter experience leaves me with one question: Who decided that this stupid story should be made into a TV-drama, filmed even on location outside the US or Canada? Get the guy sacked! Now! In short: a 'Do-not-see-because-waste-of-time'.

Odiously portrayed German woman living in the States with her equally repulsive father, decides for no logical reason to reveal to a complete stranger the history of a family painting. Then in flash-backs we have an often confusing yarn of the misfortunes which arose from this artwork from the 1700's; the story is suddenly turned to 200 years ahead and we are subjected to the usual propaganda about Nazi's, persecution, the long walk to the concentration camps, etc etc. The lead actress is a complete ham and what I resent is how the movie attempts to lecture us for the zillioneth time on the evils of the world disguising their posturing as the history of a work of art. 1 out of 10.