"Tim's Vermeer" is probably not a documentary that the average person would ever watch. Me being a huge Penn & Teller fan, however, I was the perfect audience. My wife, however, is not such a huge fan--but she ended up enjoying the film even more than me!

This documentary was produced by Penn Gillette and he narrates it as well. His silent partner, Teller, directed the film. It's a strange story about a guy with too much time on his hands who has an obsession--to test out the theory that Jan Vermeer (the super-famous Dutch painter) actually might have used advanced technology (specifically a camera obscura-sort of device) to help him make such a super-realistic painting. Fortunately Tim Jenison appears to be very rich due to some of his inventions and has the time and obsessive drive to test out his idea. Through the course of the film, you see him exactingly replicate the studio room used by Vermeer and actually paint a Vermeer-style painting using this technique. What makes it even more amazing is that Jenison is NOT a painter and has novice skills in that department.

While this probably sounds a bit boring, it really isn't. I love just about all of Penn & Teller's work--and this is no exception. As for the wife, she is an engineer and the way that science and engineering was used in the show REALLY got her excited--and it's rare to ever see my wife get his excited about a film. She loved it. Well worth seeing.

We live in the age of technology. We don't normally think of this as a time producing great artists the way they proliferated in earlier times.

One of the most fascinating types of art, to me anyway, are those of the Dutch. So much detail, particularly in the works of Vermeer.

Penn Jillette, part of the magic team of Penn & Teller, introduces us to inventor Tim Jenison, who puts forward the theory that Vermeer employed technological/scientific means to paint his incredibly detailed artwork. He attempts to figure out how Vermeer was able to paint in such great detail, and reproduces everything available to Vermeer in his time, to recreate his studio, and finally to paint "The Music Lesson."

Jenison postulates that Vermeer possibly used camera obscura and a small mirror to achieve the look of his work.

No way to prove this as Vermeer did not leave any notes, including notes about achieving the colors of his paint. However, Jenison makes a very strong case.

This is a fantastic and absorbing documentary, and gives a possible answer for another aspect of Vermeer's work that wasn't brought up in the discussion. Jenison's recreation using these techniques took months. Vermeer did not leave behind a great many paintings. Granted he died young (43, probably not that young in those days) but still, if it took so long to paint these pictures, perhaps that is why there are so few of them.

His lack of paintings was mentioned, but not connected with this technique. I think this is yet further evidence that he may in fact used these painstaking methods.

This is a controversial subject because some art historians feel it blemishes Vermeer's work and makes him a cheat. Many feel that art and science must forever stay separate.

Jenison and others, such as David Hockney, argue that it is not cheating to use or even invent techniques to help his work. The commitment, the beauty, the detail, the color, all stand testament to the artistry of Vermeer. The fact that it can be replicated in modern times doesn't diminish the work.

A wonderful documentary that deserves to be seen.

Tim Jenison works out how it was possible for Vermeer to paint what amounts to photo realistic paintings with a great deal of ease. He then builds a full scale room that matches one in a Vermeer painting in order to further prove it.

I'm mixed on this film. While I think Tim pretty much proves Vermeer could have used this method to paint the film, I'm still pondering why the film runs 80 minutes especially after 15 he's proved his point.

Yes I completely understand that seeing Tim paint the copy is the point but taking it that far raises more questions than are healthy such as how Tim learned to paint and mix colors and how it would be possible for a regular guy to just do it.

Don't get me wrong but at a certain point I just wanted to know why this film was longer than say a half an hour.

Worth a look but its little more than a Discovery Channel documentary.