Customer Reviews

Painted Veil

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unfortunately I Never read the novel but I found the movie to be impressive. THE PAINTED VEIL tells the story of Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts) trapped in a loveless marriage to biologist husband Walter (Edward Norton.) When she has an affair with English Vice Consul Charlie Townsend (Live Shreiber), Walter takes Kitty into the cholera-ridden areas of central China in the hope of curing both the peasants and his marriage.

The journey of China becomes a metaphor for the pair's deep retreat within themselves. Their relationship has become a cultivated division; the best they manage to muster toward each other is a courteous contempt. Yet the grim discipline demanded of them by the epidemic, and the daily reminder of life's brevity, forces Kitty and Walter to reflect upon their actions. And so the story becomes for them one of discovering their capacity for forgiveness and love. Death, however, stalks close by.

Director Curran manages to coax fine performances from his cast. Watts' Kitty expertly makes the transition from playfulness to gravitas. The sadness in Naomi Watts eyes as she stares upon the cholera stricken children is one of the most memorable scenes. She is one amazing actress and can really express what she feels not only with her dialogue, but with her gestures and facial expressions. Plus continues to be one of the best actors working in Hollywood. Norton's performance is no less masterful. His shy, soulful Walter becomes a wound's scab -- a man so sunk in melancholy and self-loathing as to become dead to himself. Norton's Walter never veers toward self-pity, but manfully "gets on" with things, though with the saddest imaginable eyes. There is excellent support from Schreiber as the slick Townsend, Diana Rigg as a nun toiling amid the cholera outbreak, and Toby Jones as Waddington, a British agent who becomes the Fanes' protector. Curran cleverly condenses passages from the novel into simple shots. An entire scene in which Kitty churlishly mocks the homely sacred art of the plague city's convent is quickly captured by a close-up of a rudely carved Madonna figure with a childishly painted face, which tells us all we need to know about the humble nuns' lives versus the world-weary Kitty's. After the speedy initial set up of the film, its lazy pace may put some people off, but this is a beautifully shot and performed film that is well deserving of your time.

You must be in the right mood to watch this movie. It's a bit slow but it's "real", it represents several human emotions such as love, lust, jealousy, revenge...much more enjoyable after having read the book. Not for everybody but for those who have the patience and depth for this kind of movie, you will feel the anguish of the main characters.

The year is 1925. Kitty (Naomi Watts) is a naive woman, whose mother expects her to marry soon. She meets a young dull and shy man, Doctor Walter Fane (Edward Norton), a bacteriologist. They marry, and soon find themselves in China. Walter discovers Kitty's affair with a diplomat, Charles Townsend (Liev Shreiber); Walter then will force Kitty to come with her to a remote village ravaged by cholera.
He is very much in love with her, but it is not reciprocal. After the affair is discovered, their relationship soon becomes cold, and indifferent.

This is a movie about love lost and love earned - the director showed this well, the script was decent enough and believable, still a little too predictable for my taste. (Anyone will see the ending coming miles away!)

The cast is quite excellent, and the characters they play are rather likable and invite the viewer to join them on a fascinating journey in 1920s China.

It is a beautiful, well-adapted, well-directed film to watch.

Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread,--behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave
Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.

"The Painted Veil" is old school, not just because it is based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel, but also because this 2006 movie has sensibilities more akin to the Hollywood of the 1930s (when the movie was first filmed with Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall), than of today. There was a story in the news this week about a controversial and racy billboard in Chicago that proclaimed "Life's short. Get a divorce." The billboard was taken down after a week, over the objections of the two divorce attorneys who put it up, but there is no denying that divorces have become a lot more popular since Maugham's day (the high water marked was 1980 in the U.S. when the divorce rate topped out at 41%). I bring this up because "The Painted Veil" is about two people who do not get divorced, and not because they are staying together for the sake of the children, because there are not any children. It is a love story, but one of the most unromantic ones that I have ever seen, which is, rather surprisingly, not a bad thing.

Kitty Garstin (Naomi Watts) is the daughter of an unambitious solicitor whose inflated idea of herself has seen her reject all possible suitors. But when her younger sister marries and her mother (Maggie Steed) asks pointedly how long she intends to live off of her father, the confluence of events compels her to accept the marriage proposal of Walter Fane (Edward Norton), a young bacteriologist who is heading off to China. This is hardly the foundation for a marriage and in Hong Kong the bored Kitty ends up having an affair with Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter discovers the affair he agrees to let Kitty divorce him if Townsend will divorce his wife and agree to marry Kitty. When Townsend refuses Kitty is stunned, and with nowhere else to go she follows Walter as he volunteers to deal with a cholera epidemic in the interior of China. It is there that the husband and wife find themselves changing.

The title of "The Painted Veil" is taken from a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the opening sestet of which is quoted above, and I find it insightful that Maugham's characters do not take the poet's advice. Almost of as much interest as what is happening between Walter and Kitty is the way he comes to understand that all of his scientific and medical knowledge is of no value if he cannot persuade the locals how to deal with the epidemic. This is a minor part of the story, and it is the omnipresent threat of cholera that is of more importance to the way things work out in "The Painted Veil," but still a nice little critique of the arrogance of Europeans in dealing with the Third World in the screenplay by Ron Nyswaner ("Philadelphia").

Director John Curran ("We Don't Live Here Anymore") was able to film the entire movie in China, but the beautiful vistas shot by Stuart Dryburgh ("The Piano") serve as the setting for the story and never overwhelm it the way that usually happens in a David Lean epic. The performances by the main characters, including Toby Jones as Waddington and Diana Rigg as the Mother Superior, are uniformly understated in keeping with the cultured reserve of their characters, and that may well explain why my appreciation for the moment of mutual redemption for Kitty and Walter is more intellectual than emotional. Of course, back in the day this story was probably as much of a stiff-upper lip tearjerker as you were going to find in literature.

Final Note: The only extra you will find on this DVD is a trailer for the movie, but unless I have gone completely insane this is a different trailer than the one I saw on other DVDs that inspired me to check out this movie. This one gives away specific details regarding the characters and plots that I do not remember seeing in that other trailer, which is why I was able to get into this movie with no expectations beyond that indicated by the presence of Norton, Watts and company that this film was going to take the high road (Update: I found that other trailer on another DVD and, indeed, it gives away very little of the story, which is much more effective than the one accompanying the actual movie).

I hesitated to buy from other sellers and am glad I did the dvd came in perfect condition and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie
what a great experience

I couldn't have found anything amiss with this film even if I tried.
It is beautiful. It is slow as it should be - its setting and time being in accordance with S.Maugham's novel.
All the actors were very good and the leads excellent in expressing their characters and feelings even without words.
Wonderful scenery.

I wish there were more movies like this one!

This movie was made with love. The 2 principal actors worked hard to have this film done and to get the money for it. But what a beautiful and slow movie! The love story is particular and we can almost feel the humidity and heat of China. And Naomi Watts found her husband in real life during the making of the movie. So their love affair is beautifully acted! I think that the charm of that film is to watch actors that we know from other movies play in that not well known movie from a beautiful novel. Ir was a discovery for me and I loved the movie very much!

I just loved this film. Edward Norton was great as usual ad the movie is very visually stunning (shot in Shanghai). It's a very romantic story.

It is the 1920s in England, and Walter (Edward Norton), a shy, bookish doctor marries vivacious Kitty (Naomi Watts) who just wants to get away from her mother. They move to China where Kitty strays with a dashing diplomat while Walter decides to go up-country to fight a cholera epidemic.

This tale of repression and desire left me strangely cold. Norton lamely attempts a British accent but is never even remotely convincing as the awkward doctor; he just looks too American. Watts is fine as the spoiled rich girl, but the script lets them both down; the loveless marriage is never satisfactorily resolved and the overall feeling of detachment and disinterest spreads to the audience. Neither Walter nor Kitty is likeable or sympathetic; he's too stubborn and proud and she's too shallow and self-centered.

Although the photography is gorgeous and the look of the film is quite lush, the story is dreary and dull. Disappointing.