Peter Greenaway’s Nightwatching turns the making of Rembrandt’s The Night Watcher into an epic tale about marriage, color, the secret lives of paintings, the nature of looking, and the impossibility of a peaceful relationship between commerce, politics and artistic genius. It’s pretentious and stagey, both visually decadent and over-talky, and, from what I saw of it, kind of wonderful. My biggest regret of the 2007 Toronto Film Festival is that, in the middle of the press screening, with a hot cup of coffee in my hand, I fell asleep.

I really don’t think it was Greenaway’s fault. I do understand that his highly-theatrical tableau and inflated speeches of philosophical exposition can turn viewers off, and this film, like his best works, has an implacable rhythm to it that could be misconstrued as monotony. But I’m a reluctant sucker for Greenaway’s style, so I can’t really blame my unfortunate press screening narcolepsy on the director. I absolutely loved the first 15 minutes of the film, in which Greenaway introduces us to Rembrandt, his somewhat fantastic home life, and his unconventional but deeply touching bond with his wife Saskia. I could probably write a full-length review of a single early scene, in which Rembrandt, played by Martin Freeman of the UK version of The Office, addresses the camera with the story of how he and Saskia got together, but I feel like I really *shouldn’t* write anything more without seeing the full film. Since Nightwatching doesn’t yet have U.S. distribution, I’m not sure when that will be.

So, while I curse my brain for failing me in the clutch, across the jump you’ll find a look at what other people are saying about it.

“A welcome return to form for a man who seemed hopelessly mired in the formalism of multi-screen, hyper-texted images, Nightwatching has a surprisingly conventional narrative that concentrates on Rembrant’s heartbreaking devotion to his wife–and yet never lacks for the thematic complexity of the artistic process that the eminently theatrical and wildly cinematic director’s best films exemplify.” — Stephen Garrett, indieWIRE

“Visually, Nightwatching is truly a site to behold with the vast majority of its 140 minutes shot to recreate the mood, tone and contrast between shadow-and-light for which Rembrandt is most well-known. The staging is both highly theatrical — like much of Greenaway’s work — but also thoroughly cinematic. His storytelling may still lead to some moments of confusion, but the overall experience is fairly breathtaking.” — Aaron Dobbs

“Greenaway’s dialogue begins to turn its laundry lists of historical and art-philosophical item-checking into burning tapers of passion.” — Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

“The ‘hidden meaning of paintings’ is obviously the theme-du-jour, though Greenaway’s take is infinitely more intellectual than Dan Brown could ever dream up. In reality, the conspiracy is less important than the painter himself: Rembrandt is captured in all his joyful, bawdy, self-analyzing ways, prey to passions and capable of real love. Freeman, best known for the U.K. series The Office, is just the man, inhabiting the foul-mouthed, lusty artist and making him believable rather than theatrical.” — Jay Weissberg, Variety