I have read the book, and I saw the movie when I was in Florida on vacation in Feb. I thought that the movie was good but like any film you see the directors vision of the story not your minds vision as when you read a book.
I did feel the paintings shown in the movie (except for the Painting the movie was named after) did not measure up to the actual paintings of Vermeer.
Also what was up with the stretchers shown they did not look like anything I have seen used nor like that shown here:
http://www.artrenewal.org/images/art...ng_detail1.jpg In a actual Vermeer painting showing a canvas on a easel.
Also I had a discussion about the mixing of paint with Bill Whitaker, after we both had read the book, he felt, as I, that the description was not totally accurate. As for in the movie they did not go into that much detail on the specifics But yes that was a lot of paint to mix at one time when there were no lead tubes to put the paint in to keep it from getting hard before it could be used.