Tag Archives: The Miniaturist

“The Miniaturist” is huge on talent . . . and show

Golden Age Amsterdam comes alive in all its opulence and repressed sensuality in an adaptation of Jessie Burton’s bestselling novel The Miniaturist, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Romola Garai and Alex Hassell. Taylor-Joy plays a young bride who receives mysterious packages from a reclusive maker of miniatures—tiny objects that appear to predict the future. Masterpiece: The Miniaturist also features Paapa Essiedu, Hayley Squires and Emily Berrington .

The Miniaturist will be ready to grab on on Digital September 10 and DVD and Blu-ray September 18.

Critics were captivated when the miniseries recently aired in the UK. The Telegraph (London) applauded it as “an evocative, spellbinding drama big on atmosphere,” and in another review compared the production to “a Daphne Du Maurier potboiler as painted by Vermeer.” The Guardian (London) praised the show as “mesmerizing.”

Set in 1686 Amsterdam, The Miniaturist follows Nella (Taylor-Joy), a naive eighteen-year-old from a bankrupt aristocratic family in the provinces. She is wooed by Johannes Brandt (Hassell), a handsome and prosperous merchant looking for a wife. Once wed, Nella lives in Johannes’ mansion, mostly without him, kept in the care of his grim and overbearing sister, Marin (Garai), and the household’s two controlling servants.

As a wedding gift, Johannes gives Nella an exquisitely crafted cutaway model of the very house she is living in now, as a married woman. He instructs her to furnish it to her liking and gives her the address to the miniaturist who creates the tiny objects. She and the miniaturist only communicate by letter and upon her first order, she receives more objects than she requests. Without direction from Nella, the miniaturist keeps sending new creations including dolls replicating Johannes, Marin and the servants, with details that hint at closely held secrets.

Amsterdam is a city full of secrets, which Nella proceeds to unlock thanks to clues from her unseen artisan. In a community where authorities regard sugar as sinful, gingerbread men as idolatrous, and certain sexual behaviors as grounds for execution, secrecy can be a life-or-death matter.