Girl with a Pearl Earring is this year's version of 2002's Rabbit-Proof Fence – a flick with practically zero story made more than worthwhile for the cinematography alone.  But Earring one-ups Fence a bit by having actual acting talent, even if they share only slightly more lines than the characters in the Aboriginal drama.

In case you're as unfamiliar with art history as I am, the title of Earring comes from a painting from 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.  The piece is of an unknown girl with a rather mesmerizing expression on her face.  Like the Mona Lisa, nothing is known about the painting's subject.  Earring, which is based on a novel by Tracy Chevalier, invents a story to fill in the numerous blanks around the life of both Vermeer and his famous canvas.

Earring is set in the 1660s, where 16-year-old Griet (Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation) is forced into the working world when her tile-painting father goes blind and can no longer provide the family with money for food and housing.  Griet ends up working as a servant for the Vermeer family, which consists of the withdrawn artist (Colin Firth, Love Actually), his perpetually pregnant wife Catharina (Essie Davis), a gaggle of kids, and the stereotypical mother-in-law Maria (Judy Parfitt).  Vermeer takes a liking to Griet, as does the son of a local butcher (Cillian Murphy, 28 Days Later) and a very sleazy art patron with wandering hands (Tom Wilkinson, The Importance of Being Earnest).

And there really isn't much more to the story than that.  Vermeer eventually has Griet helping him mix his paints and whatnot, which makes Catharina and Maria very jealous (there's a great pull-back shot that shows Vermeer staring at Griet, and Maria staring at Vermeer staring at Griet). Eventually, he has Griet sit for him and – boom – the eponymous painting is born.

I haven't read the book, but if you're looking for a great, complicated story, you should look elsewhere.  Director Peter Webber seems to backburner Olivia Hetreed's script in order to concentrate on the visuals, which admittedly, are some of the best you'll see this year. Webber, who has worked on a handful of television movies, deliberately sets up his scenes to mimic Vermeer's other paintings, and the result, thanks to Eduardo Serra's incredible photography, is absolutely breathtaking.  Serra, an Oscar nominee for The Wings of the Dove, along with production designer Ben van Os and costumer Dien van Straalen (who have each worked on a string of Peter Greenaway films), are the real stars here, though Johansson does a lot with very little.  She does more acting with her face than anyone this side of Samantha Morton.

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for some sexual content