Van Gogh

Anyone looking for a conventional biography of the troubled Dutch painter, whose work found an audience only after his death in 1890, will be frustrated by this 1990 BBC docudrama, starring Linus Roache as the tormented artist, which plays like a fever dream. Told from the painter's perspective as he nears his end, Van Gogh finds the title character reflecting back on childhood traumas, his desperate search for love, strange relationships with other painters such as Gaugin and Toulouse-Lautrec, and curious codependency with his brother Theo. There are effective moments here, but the fractured narrative—which careens chronologically from decade to decade and then back again—indulges in affected transitional devices (including repeated early intrusions by Toulouse-Lautrec, who's told to go offstage again until it's time for his entrance, as well as the sudden appearance of a modern TV reporter, who offers exposition) and too often seems forced in its dreamlike and hallucinatory approach. Van Gogh boasts solid production values (although the extensive nudity seems gratuitous) and the film offers some strong performances (even if Roache seems miscast and tentative), but Van Gogh has been the subject of many more effective dramas and documentaries (including Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh, reviewed in VL Online-1/06). Not recommended. (F. Swietek)