This evening, Mum, Sarah, and I watched The Painted Veil directed by John Curran and stars Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, and Liev Schreiber. I wasn’t keen on watching it, but Mum really wanted to see it, so I thought I’d check it out.
Man, look can be so deceiving; this is actually a good film. The Painted Veil is about a young woman called Kitty Garstin (Watts), a pretty, shallow woman from a well-to-do London family who’s under pressure from her parents to find a husband. She marries Dr. Walter Fane (Norton) who’s an earnest, socially awkward doctor on leave from China (soon after she meets him at a party), despite her not loving him. The Fanes move to Shanghai, where Dr. Fane is working at a government lab studying infectious diseases. Kitty, then soon bored, meets Charles Townsend (Schreiber), a married British diplomat who is a serial womanizer, and has an affair with him. When Walter discovers this, he gives her an ultimatum: come with him to the Chinese interior to assist with a cholera epidemic relief effort for which he has volunteered, or face a divorce on the grounds of her adultery. Thus, Kitty turns to Townsend to convince him to divorce his wife and marry her. When Townsend, not to Walter's surprise, refuses to leave his wife for Kitty, she chooses to travel with her husband. And that’s when it starts to get really interesting.
This is a visually stunning film that’s a bit slow to begin with, but well worth watching if not for brilliant scenery and intense acting alone. It makes think and deeply touches you. Overall, The Painted Veil is a very striking film, and I highly recommend it. ***FOUR STARS***
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2 comments:
It was a very pretty film, but not as gripping as I thought it would be actually. The trailer was slightly misleading. But I enjoyed it (esp. because I watched it with you).
It's funny that you didn't want to watch it, but ended up liking it a lot, and I wanted to watch it, but thought it was so so (plot-wise)
It def makes me want to read the book though.
-S
Yeah, it was a very pretty film. And I suppose it did have a few so so bits in the plot. Plus, it was really nice watch it w/ Mum & you too.
It's not among my all time fav films, but it's def fav.
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