Oscar worthy performance not enough to save tired Van Gough biopic

There have been plenty of films made of the life and times of Van Gough. But unfortunately the latest biopic has nothing new to offer audiences and not even an Oscar worthy performance is enough to save this tedious flick.

Willem Dafoe delivers an Oscar worthy performance in At Eternity's Gate.

There has been a stack of feature films and documentaries about the tortured life and times of painter Vincent van Gogh.

Do we really need another one in the form of At Eternity’s Gate? In this particular case, a biopic with no genuinely fresh insights to offer? No, we do not.

What this vaguely tedious affair does have working in its favour is the questing sensitivity of actor Willem Dafoe in the lead role, who delivers an intense performance worthy of the Best Actor Oscar nomination it has generated.

William Dafoe delivers an intense performance worthy of the Best Actor Oscar nomination it has generated.

The film is set primarily in France, during the final years of the Dutch-born painter’s short life.

Van Gogh is already well into what will become renowned as his artistic prime, with his exacting eye for light and colour fully evolved.

However, at the time chronicled here — as would indeed be the case until well after his death — Van Gogh’s works are derided by the insular French art scene. Or worse still, completely ignored.

Oscar Isaac, who plays Gauguin, with Emmanuelle Seigner, who plays Madame Ginoux.

Somehow, the painter sticks to his guns and doubles down on his refined aesthetic, while his life away from the easel slides into further disrepair.

Dafoe not only has to defy our complete familiarity with van Gogh’s story. He must also cheat time itself (Dafoe was 63 at the time of filming, while van Gogh died at 37).

That Dafoe does pull off this minor miracle, while occasionally pulling us deep inside the artist’s malfunctioning mind, is something to behold.

The same can’t be said for the elegantly aimless direction of Julian Schnabel, who doesn’t seem interested in deviating from the party line on van Gogh as a loner, a loon, a late bloomer and a lost cause.

AT ETERNITY’S GATE (PG)

Director: Julian Schnabel (Basquiat)

Starring: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen.

Painted into the same old corner