At Eternity's Gate (2018)

Score: 3.5 / 5

A highly unconventional biopic, At Eternity's Gate seeks to dramatize and hypothesize the final days of Vincent van Gogh.

Not terribly concerned with realism, time, or facts, we flow through his life with impressionistic images and vignettes more than scenes. He travels around France, painting constantly, seemingly forever in a state of exhaustion and bewilderment. His brother (Rupert Friend) lovingly cares for him when he's able, and he meets kind folks (Mads Mikkelsen) along the way. But he's mostly alone, painting feverishly and drawing the disdain of other artists who do not understand his style (Oscar Isaac). Van Gogh cannot support himself, and his destitution is only enhanced by his mental state.

The film doesn't quite suggest the nature of van Gogh's other-ness, though it could be a form of mental illness. It seems more likely that it's a disorder of some kind -- what we might call a disability -- that allows him to see the world differently than the rest of us. What way this might be is similarly unclear. Cinematographer Benoit Delhomme attempts to take us inside van Gogh's head, often using between intimate handheld cameras and changing lenses and focus to shift our awareness of the environment. He even includes some almost-first-person shots that feature heavy blurs in the lower third or half of the screen; it's a very specific choice, and one that served to baffle me more than anything. It's not likely to be an accurate estimation of van Gogh's vision, thus an odd way to identify his POV.

Willem Dafoe gives a solid performance as the suffering artist, and while his performance carries the film, it's not the most interesting or beautiful part of the picture. For me, it was all about the cinematography and the screenplay. The two work together to craft a fairly radical approach to filmmaking, especially in the biography genre, and while it's not always effective in telling a story or even providing enlightenment, the film manages to impress its aesthetic and strangeness on you. You feel it, you just don't always know what it is you feel.