How did I miss that movie when it came out, I can’t imagine. I remember that I meant to go and see it and before I knew it, they were not showing it any longer. That often happens with really good movies. Girl With a Pearl Earring is wonderful. I liked it so much that I was wondering what the novel by Tracy Chevalier was like (have never read anything by her). Scarlett Johansson, whom I knew from Lost in Translation, is incredibly good. So is Colin Firth, as Vermeer. You find yourself in the middle of 17th century Delft in colourful detail and for once, the heroine is not an aristocrat, but a maid. I am a sucker for period movies anyway, but Girl With a Pearl Earring looks quite documented and although of course the plot is totally imaginary, you feel like it might have been true. It made me want to go to The Hague and see the painting

Some time ago, I mentioned reading Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. I forgot to tell you that in spite of the some 580 pages, it was unfinished. Elizabeth Gaskell died before she could finish it.
If you get a chance, you can watch the BBC production of Wives and Daughters, which I found quite remarkable. They found an end for it which I thought was quite adequate and that Mrs Gaskell might have enjoyed.