'Vincent : The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh' : (NR)

Only a few of Vincent van Gogh's letters can be read in a single sitting -- they're too punishing and full of broken genius to expose yourself to for long. "Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh" is made up entirely of the artist's correspondence, all written to his brother Theo from 1872 until his death 18 years later, and with this as a text, it's impossible for it not to have some greatness.

So why is it such a chore to sit through?

The Dutch-born director Paul Cox has conceived of his project as an homage to the painter on the occasion of the centenary of his death, and though certainly the spirit of celebration is strong, his conception is not. What we have in "Vincent" are letters read by the actor John Hurt over shots of forests and fields of flowers and windmills, all representing the settings of the artist's life and work. And if Cox had attempted to find some cinematic equivalent for van Gogh's style, instead of calendar-arty enactments, with peasants in period clothes, there might have been some legitimacy to it.

Mixed in with these banal vistas are representations of the artist's works. Though it benefits us to be able to see the work and, at the same time, hear what was in the artist's mind as he was making it, we're not able to take in what was greatest about the art he created, to see the textures and the strokes and build a relationship with them in the way we can in a museum. Whatever the intentions, it's still a bum way to look at the pictures.

It's not the ideal way to get the most out of the letters either. Reading them on your own, you can savor them, and mull them over. The readings here rush by too quickly; before one emotion has sunk in, another falls in on us. The images are more of a distraction than anything else, and because Cox isn't very skilled at situating us in time or place -- didn't he learn anything from van Gogh's genius for setting? -- we can never fully respond to what's on the soundtrack because the messages the pictures convey don't seem to be in sync with what we're hearing.

What we glean from the letters is nothing less than the pain of an artist's complete absorption in his desire to reach some point of truth in his work. This movie, though honorable, debases that struggle.

Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh is not rated.