The Last Vermeer

Contractually obliged to exclusively star in well-made, mid-tier indie dramas about the art world, Claes Bang (The Square; The Burnt Orange Heresy) doubles down on his pigeonholing with the fact-based The Last Vermeer.

This time, the Danish actor plays Capt. Joseph Piller, an Allied officer in post-WWII Holland who’s tasked with investigating whether Dutch artist Han van Meegeren (Guy Pearce) was a Nazi conspirator.

Thus begins an appealing cat-and-mouse game between the two gifted actors, in which van Meegeren requests merely his painting supplies to prove his innocence and a potentially bigger conspiracy arises involving Nazi money laundering — a suspenseful situation made even more so by mounting pressure from an unforgiving nation that wants to see the accused pay for his alleged crimes.

Gorgeously shot, the directorial debut of Dan Friedkin (whose credits range from a producer of Clint Eastwood’s The Mule to a stunt pilot in Dunkirk) hits a wall around its hour mark, but finds new life in its second half when it transforms into a courtroom drama.

All of the above may not leave much up to the imagination, and its female characters — including Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) as Piller’s assistant — are given so little to do that they may as well be played by mannequins, but it’s a satisfying mystery nonetheless.

Grade: B. Rated R. Starts Nov. 20 at the Carolina Cinemark

(Photo: Jack English/TriStar Pictures)