This was the most amateurish movie I have ever had the displeasure of seeing.
While the intentions of the director/writer Paul Davids may have been genuine and while it is admirable to make a movie devoid of lowest common denominator pleasing sex and physical violence, the quality of the script, direction, acting, and sets is abysmal.
Everything about the movie is obvious and manipulative, starting with Don McLean's `Starry Night' over the opening credits and throughout the film. There is no subtlety - Davids hits the audience over the head with a sledgehammer, to make sure they get the point, at every turn.
Vincent, after being dead for a century, is suddenly plopped onto the streets of Pasadena and never seems shocked or intrigued by late 20th century technology or gender roles. He somehow manages to navigate about what should be an alien world without trouble. His Dutch accent sounds like it belongs in Dublin and his modern paintings are clearly the work of an uninspired painter using Van Gogh's style, but not talent. His painting of a yellow hat over a self-portrait, would have been examined by experts, who could have determined by brush strokes and other clues, that it was the original artist who added it.
None of the sets looked convincing. The interior shots of the houses from which the paintings were stolen did not look like anyone actually lived there and the bland way the supposedly priceless Van Goghs were on display and the lack of expected security to prevent theft were ludicrous.
The script was trite and the acting was execrable, most notably Sally Kirkland, playing a stereotype, not a person. The lawyer was also a singularly annoying character.
I agree with TedA-2's comments about the cheesy travelogue scenes in France, including the crypt (which looked as ancient as someone's basement).
`Starry Night' had none of the charm of 1979's `Time After Time', in which Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells who time travels into his future/our present. That movie had everything this one lacked: accomplished actors (McDowell and David Warner, playing Jack the Ripper, also a time traveler), tender love story (with Mary Steenburgen, the quirky love interest), and characters you believe in and care about. Rent that and leave this waste of film of the shelf.
