The Last Vermeer (2020) * * *

 

Directed by:  Dan Friedkin

Starring:  Claes Bang, Guy Pearce, Vicky Krieps, Roland Moller, August Diehl

Based on a true story, and sometimes with unnecessary dramatic license taken, The Last Vermeer is a post-World War II story about failed artist and soon wealthy art dealer Han van Meegeren (Pearce) accused of collaborating with the Nazis by selling them rare Vermeer paintings at record prices.   Hermann Goring paid the most anyone ever has for a painting, which financed van Meegeren's lavish lifestyle of excess and parties.   Lt. Joseph Piller (Bang), a former Dutch resistance fighter working for the postwar Allied government, is in charge of investigating how famous Vermeer paintings wound up in a Nazi-owned Austrian salt mine where thousands of other works were stored.   Piller traces one Vermeer painting in particular to van Meegeren, who Piller suspects was running an espionage ring out of his art gallery.  

van Meegeren, for head-scratching reasons later explained, doesn't express his innocence, but doesn't admit to guilt either.   After haggling with sinister-looking Dutch government agents who want jurisdiction over van Meegeren, Piller finds himself hiding van Meegeren in an attic.   van Meegeren asks to paint, an odd request for a man on the run, but Piller abides and this allows for the truth to unfold.   There are two moments in The Last Vermeer in which van Meegeren could've saved himself a whole lot of trouble with simple explanations, but they do allow for entertaining discoveries.   

The Last Vermeer is part mystery and inevitably part courtroom drama, and both aspects work well.  Yes, van Meegeren is a con man hiding behind a facade of opulence and sophistication, but does that mean he profited off of others' suffering by selling national treasures to the Nazis?   van Meegeren no doubt sold a painting to Goring, but is all what it seems?   I won't give away what became apparent early on, but the truth has a way of casting a new light on the events.

The war forced many to operate in the gray areas of life, where van Meegeren is right at home, while Piller not so much.   Piller's estranged wife worked for the Resistance also, but had to ingratiate herself and perhaps sleep with Nazi hierarchy in order to access needed information.   This doesn't sit well with Piller, but will his alliance with van Meegeren allow him to see things differently?   Piller is a tall, sturdy lead, who thankfully isn't tasked with being a walking, breathing moral compass.   He wants to get to the truth, and finds a way to live with its consequences.   Pearce has become an expert in roles requiring situational ethics and shadowy existences.   Was his work with the Nazis patriotic or did he swindle some powerful men who were begging to be parted from their money?   A little of both, and van Meegeren found he could live with that.