Cast: Mira Sorvino, Aida Turturro, Sharon Angela, Rick Pasqualone
Director: Susan Seidelman
Producer: Jonathan Brett
Screenplay: Jonathan Brett and Susan Seidelman
Cinematography: Maryse Alberti
Music: Wendy Blackstone
The Dutch Master is a cleverly developed, lighthearted comedy about the differences between reality and fantasy, and the hidden inhibitions uncovered by crossing that line. In one sense, there is a commonality between Susan Seidelman's Oscar-nominated short (the movie is less than 30 minutes long) and John Duigan's Sirens -- both narratives revolve around a sexually-motivated realization that forever alters the life of a female protagonist. The Dutch Master, however, is contemporary, and far funnier.
Theresa (Mira Sorvino, the daughter of actor Paul Sorvino, and co-star of Amongst Friends) is a dental hygienist engaged to be married to a real "hunk." She's basically a normal New York girl until one day when she visits an art museum and becomes fascinated by a painting depicting a 17th-century household. Fascination becomes obsession, and Theresa begins to fantasize about the lives of the people depicted on the canvas, neglecting her friends and her fiance.
With a witty script, The Dutch Master engages its audience from the outset, giving us a group of characters whose "realness" we can appreciate, if only through their down-to-earth dialogue. Director Susan Seidelman, whose full-length features include Desperately Seeking Susan, has chosen a perfect cast, and her method of storytellling -- combining pseudo- documentary interviews with a more traditional view of events -- keeps this film fresh from start to finish.
Told from a "woman's perspective," The Dutch Master nevertheless has universal appeal. Its length is both an advantage and a disadvantage -- there's no fat to be trimmed, but the characters are fascinating enough to deserve more screen time, and we have to leave them just as we're really getting to know them. As it is, though, there's more than enough in The Dutch Master than in many movies three times its length.
© 1994 James Berardinelli