At Eternity's Gate

Artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel's fragmented, interior look at Vincent Van Gogh's life, captured with roving, POV camerawork and experimental sound, is challenging but sometimes quite powerful. But Dafoe's deeply committed performance unquestionably drives the movie. At Eternity's Gate carefully avoids showing very many of Van Gogh's rages, instead focusing on the aftermath and his feelings and fears around his acts. The result is an appealingly sad, lost character without any of the showiness that might come in a typical biopic.

With its singular focus, however, the movie misses a chance to deepen relationships between Van Gogh and either Theo or Gauguin. But the film's deeply thoughtful dialogue, co-written by the legendary Jean-Claude Carrière, provides plenty of fascinating talk about the nature of art, painting, and existence. Schnabel also offers a meticulous, convincing re-creation of what Van Gogh's style might have been like, with many close-ups of hands applying thick daubs of paint in little spots and dashes. It adds great dimension to the paintings and makes them seem more alive, more vivid. But the often wobbly camerawork could make some viewers seasick. At Eternity's Gate joins a long list of already existing movies about Van Gogh, and it's welcome among them.