Stanley Tucci adapted James Lord's memoir and directs this vantage into the life of one of the great artists of the last century - Alberto Giacometti. A strong cast brings life into this rather tedious and repetitive tale - but the material, though interesting, becomes indulgent.
The film is based on a true experience as documented by actor/author James Lord in his book 'A Giacometti Portrait'. The time - 1964 - and while on a short trip to Paris, the American writer and art-lover James Lord (Armie Hammer) is asked by his friend, the world-renowned artist Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush), to sit for a portrait. The process, Giacometti assures Lord, will take only a few days. Flattered and intrigued, Lord agrees. So begins not only the story of an offbeat friendship, but, seen through the eyes of Lord, an insight into the beauty, frustration, profundity and, at times, downright chaos of the artistic process. FINAL PORTRAIT is a portrait of a genius, and of a friendship between two men who are utterly different, yet increasingly bonded through a single, ever-evolving act of creativity. It is a film which focuses on the artistic process itself, by turns exhilarating, exasperating and bewildering, questioning whether the gift of a great artist is a blessing or a curse. The others in the cast include Giacometti's wife (Annabel Mullion), his prostitute Caroline (Clémence Poésy), his brother Diego (Tony Shaloub) and Pierre Matisse (James Faulkner).
Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer are excellent and the film, though very slow, is worth watching for the realistic reconstruction of the art of making art.
