Georgia O'Keeffe (2009)

Our Rating: 3 out of 5

Rated: TVPG

Reviewer: Charity Bishop

I'm not sure what I expected from this film. I went into it thinking mainly of the acting nominations the leading actress received for her part. It is supposedly about a painter, but there is less actual art than romantic angst involved.

Old age has caught up to famous American artist Georgia O'Keeffe (Joan Allen) and caused her to reflect on younger times, far from her quiet home in the desert. Once, she was just an aspiring painter come to New York to create a fuss over her work being displayed in the gallery of Alfred Stieglitz (Jeremy Irons) without her permission. Her indignation as much as her talent captures his interest and in the interest of "inspiring her work," he offers to let her board in his spare flat. Georgia suspects where this may lead but is as curious about him as he is about her and agrees, abandoning her former home and ties to start anew in the big city. As their attraction leads them into an affair that will test his wife's patience and severely strain his marriage, Alfred begins to draw attention to Georgia's work by all the people that most matter. He has an army of newspaper writers to help him and a secret weapon in the form of a sensational array of "private photographs" to pull in the casual public.

But as her new friends, which includes the flippant and free-spirited "collector of husbands," Mable Stern (Tyne Daly), flock around her, Georgia's relationship with Alfred begins to falter and her painting threatens to suffer as a result. There is some exquisite art on display in this television film and fortunately since it was on a more cautious network, it never strays too much into being explicit in its material, but all the same it does seem to drag on a bit too long. Maybe the story is not compelling enough, or I could not like the characters (she seems opportunistic and eagerly immoral, if romantically-minded, and Alfred is a selfish philanderer right from the start), but as it wore on I found myself checking my watch now and again. A few moments really are wonderful and there is no question that the acting is magnificent -- evocative, deeply emotional, and at times incredibly restrained. It has a nice period flavor to it, starting in the Edwardian era and progressing on up until the 60's. And... it has made me more interested in the artist's work, which is what any decent bio-pic should do.

Content-wise, other than its obvious themes of adultery, this doesn't push the envelope all that much. There are some scattered profanities but nothing too bad; abuse of deity is infrequent but present. No violence is involved. But Georgia takes that room knowing what is expected in return -- a physical relationship. It takes them a short while to start in on it, but then it barrels through time and leaves a lot of broken hearts (including their own) in its wake. Alfred wants to take her picture, and starts to unbutton her top -- she slaps his hands away and does it herself, winding up wearing only a shawl (the camera never sees below her shoulders). He takes more provocative pictures of her (we see her nude back from behind) and then, much to her horror, displays them in public -- we see brief shots of artistic nudes (no obvious details). Later, when married to Georgia, he conducts an affair with a much younger woman -- Georgia sees her posing for a photograph (bare back). Mable Stern laughs about how many husbands she has had, and how many names she has added to her own.

I really felt nothing for this film -- neither inspired by it nor particularly horrified -- so much as I felt an instinctive sorrow that their lives had to be lived this way, full of so much betrayal and selfishness. The freedom and immorality the main characters embrace leads to frustration, resentment, and separation but the sad thing is that it could have all been avoided. Was the temporary happiness really worth all the pain and sacrifice? The film remains ambiguous on that point but I rather think it wasn't. It is not a bad movie, it's actually a very good one... but it's main focus is somewhat less than inspiring.