Recent Reviews for The Painted Veil
-
MCT:August 31, 2008Another one that should've definitely gotten a higher rating, if I wasn't such an imbecile.
Great performances for a short but perfectly appropriate cast. Obviously, Norton and Watts are the ones that shine the most. Specially the latter. Emotionally very powerful in all her character's stages. But you expect nothing less from her.
The story, without being amazingly unexpected or outside the box, does have its moments. It's simple, but it's also luring. More importantly though - and this is something extremely difficult to achieve -, I believe it's one that you can relate to at several levels, even if those are not directly connected to the main plot.
The ending is slightly similar to a "cut the crap, THIS is real life" one, and yet it's delivered in a wrapping filled with momentum and artistic visuals, which matched the rest of the movie perfectly.
Low aspects?
Honestly can't say it has any.
Why such a low rating, then?
Well, the "imbecile" keyword at the beginning of the review kinda gives it away, really...
Shouldn't I try being a bit more flexible with movie genres that aren't exactly my cup of tea, in that case?
Hell, will you stop with the fucking questions??? -
MCT:August 31, 2008
This movie is so good until the ending. The ending of this movie sucks and is totally pointless. The acting and the scenery are great. But, because of the ending, I am not planning on watching this movie again.
-
Very interesting...Not one that the kids would watch...But a good movie for a night in and Veggies..
-
MCT:August 20, 2008it sucks that she cheated on him but sweet that they feel back in love and then it sucked again when he died from a disease called cholea
-
MCT:August 20, 2008If you never wanted to kiss Ed Norton...this film would change your mind. I love his passionate reserve...oh it was so british film noir...there's a certain way british period romances are made and this one fit the bill! I just loved it! Yay! Glad I watched it.
-
MCT:August 17, 2008A wonderful remake of the 1934 film of the same name. The acting is outstanding and the cinematography and the story are equally impressive. One of 2006's finest, that is both emotional and engaging.
A film with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts as the leads can't possibly go wrong now can it?
16 August 2008 -
MCT:August 15, 2008
...a glorious period film...Edward Norton and Naomi Watts give award deserving chemistry...and one surprise is the costar of Toby Jones...a must see...
-
MCT:August 13, 2008There's a little bit of everything for everyone in this movie. I could of done without the ending (not the emotionally ending - but no reference to anything within the story afterwords ). I understand this is about a husband and wife finding a love that was never there prior, but why revolve it around such a solid storyline without doing anything with it.
It kind of fusterated me. Nonetheless the actors, the scenery, the music, and pretty much everything about this movie still keeps it insanly good. It's def, worth a look! -
MCT:August 13, 2008
WARNING: This movie may contain scenes of a romantic and dramatic nature. Viewer discretion is advised.
It's romantic, and it's also dramatic. Lame? Not even close. Not when you've got the main character as a sadistic gentleman trying to make his cheating wife go through an agonizing death by cholera. Adding to this the fact that he is also a masochistic gentleman trying to get himself killed by the same disease, then you've got yourself the perfect S&M romantic/dramatic plot. Also, you've got yourself the perfect actor and actress playing the main characters. The performances are great, both by Norton and Watts. Even in the silent scenes, you can actually know what the characters are thinking or feeling at the moment. And I think that says it all about the quality of the acting.
Unlike other movies of the kind, this one flows so smoothly that there isn't a single boring moment in it. And it's not a tearjerker at all. It has an interesting screenplay with some amusing dialogues along the way. Plus, all the scenes have a purpose of being where they were put and you don't find them to drag forever. That's the beauty of this movie: they didn't waste time focusing on the lame 'yawning' aspects of the story. Praised they shall be for that wise choice. -
MCT:August 10, 2008
A one sided marriage goes wrong and is only repaired through the most grim and threatening circumstances. This movie shows wonderful panoramic shots of old world China and the epidemic of Cholera which wiped out thousands.
-
MCT:August 9, 2008
Naomi Watts and Edward Norton are stunning in this movie. I like the scenery, the storyline and everything about this movie. When I watch it the first time, I kinda hate the ending. However, the second time around I love it.
This movie intertwines true love, fragile relationship, human courage and sacrifice. Watch it!!!!!!! -
MCT:August 6, 2008This movie looks absolutly great. im guessing because Edward Norton is in it!.
[ImpatiantlyWaiting!] -
MCT:July 30, 2008
I love this movie. It is literally love in the time of cholera indeed. It's picturesque and is worthy of cinematographic acclaim. The actors are great, of course who would expect less from these fine actors. I read that in the book, Kitty supposedly was seduced yet again by Charles Townsend after Walter Fane died. I think the film's ending is far better. Kitty's character showed more decency and self-respect and respect for Walter's memory by walking away from Charles.
-
MCT:July 29, 2008
LOve in The Times Of Cholera 2: The China Version, More Cholera, less "Realismo Magico", but is actually a very agood and very well made film, from what it looks a very well written book, very good dialogues.
-
MCT:July 23, 2008
Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people
DIRECTED BY: John Curran
STARRING: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Toby Jones, Anthony Wong Chau-SangSynopsis
The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s which has Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts meeting young, intelligent, shy and somewhat dull Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton), whose forte is the study of infectious diseases, and the convenient marriage that she finds herself committed to. 
It is in this web of intrigue that they head for China, only after Walter discovers Kitty's infidelity with one dashing and witty diplomat Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber). So much as to hide her from herself and to help thwart a cholera outbreak, this is a marriage more than on the rocks. This is a cold, indifferent and loveless partnership in a 
vast unknown and deadly environment that will test both these flightless lovebirds and with the hardships and tolerances more than any had ever anticipated. A visual delight amid the pain and suffering of a dying people and failing marriage. Will a cure be found for both, before it's too late?Source: IMDbMy Review
Somehow, I felt this movie is is a remarkable love story which unfortunately very UNDERRATED. How come Stephen Frears' The Queen was rewarded a nomination for the year's Academy Award Best Picture, and The Painted Veil didn't get any nomination at all? I mean, not a single one? You know what, they kept going crazy and crazier through years.
Enough with the disappointment on those guys, the movie didn't disappoint me at all. It is no Atonement, that movie is slightly better in every way, but the breathtaking SCENERY and cinematography took my breath away. The characters' development is magnificent, both main characters played by Norton and Watts were so true and close-to-life. The characters flow slowly, but sure, and no character was abandoned to be just a not-so-important character, they were given right proportions. Both actings terrific. I won't say much about Norton, I think we all agree here that he is crazy magnificent. But my concern here is to Naomi Watts which always give a worthy performance in every movie she's involved, but still, she is underrated. She should be rewarded as Keira Knightley, at least, which carrer boosted this high in only 5 years.
I considered the music score as one of the BEST in the year. The original score kept playing in my head until now. Maybe, the only flaw this movie carries is its slow-moving way of telling the story, which can bored some people, especially they who only watch for excitement. But, I'm not saying that The Painted Veil is a movie for everyone, so I don't really care about the slow-moving story.
In the end, The Painted Veil is a love story which gives a fresh air to the genre's fan, when all the rom-com parade is not soon to be ended. (And I'm REALLY SICK of them. The Painted Veil is romantic movie who brings us back when there are high quality love stories. Remember when it was the age of The English Patient? Well, who could forget that. THIS IS THE KIND OF LOVE STORY WE NEED.
It was silly of us to look for qualities in each other that we never had.
-Naomi Watts as Kitty Fane-
-
MCT:July 19, 2008
Wow, this movie is excellent! I loved the characters and their diversity and the acting was very well done. I loved the story and I loved watching the characters grow over time. The settings and the suffering was captured perfectly and showing all th...(read more) e suffering of the Cholera patients was pretty gut wrenching. I love how love finds them in the end because they both matured and realised that what each of them did was a mistake. Edward Norton is a hottie and Naomi Watts is a fantastic actress...the end had me bawling my eyes out though. I loved The Painted Veil and I appreciated its view of history, suffering and a more realistic story where it doesn't always end as you expect, so this is definitely in my favorites.
-
MCT:July 19, 2008Rated: (PG-13)
Directed by: John Curran
Genres: Drama, Romance
Casts: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Liv Scheiber
"It was silly of us to look for qualities in each other that we never had."
-Walter Fane-
In Austria, Katrin is lonely after her sister's marriage and she agrees to marry her father's research associate Dr. Walter Fane. Fane takes her to China but constantly ignors her in favour of his medical research. Lonely Katrin has an affair with Jack Townsend of the British Embassy. When it is discovered by Walter he becomes very bitter. Fane travels to fight a cholera epidemic and Katrin goes with him and helps. They grow closer together than ever before but Walter is knifed in a riot incited by the burning of a cholera infested town. Now their new found happiness will depend on Walter's survival.
A good friend of mine has this theory :
"if our schoolmates say 'this movie is boring/horrible/dull', that means it probably the best movie you'll ever watch..
but..
if the phrase
'this movie's friggin' cool/rocks/incredible!' means a warning because it would be all rubbish." So sad, yes, but that's the awful truth. So when this friend I know say Painted Veil's sooo dull.....well, you get the idea.
A portrait of betrayal and trust wrapped in beautiful scenes in "The Painted Veil". Another stunning performance brought by Edward Norton and also Naomi Watts. As i saw Norton plays Walter Fane, I didn't see him as roles he played in Illusionist or Fight Club but simply as the quiet and complicated bacteriologist. This is just a testimony how excellent Norton did his job here.
The Painted Veil visually impressive and boost its emotional substances. With both flawless performances, it's slow moving in a peaceful and charming way.
This is not about infatuation..nor obesession. This is a story about affection and forgiveness.
Walter Fane: "Hello."
Kitty Garstin: "Hello."
Walter Fane: "Say, I was wondering... "
Kitty Garstin: "What?"
Walter Fane: "Sorry. I - I was wondering if you'd like to dance."
Kitty Garstin: "Why not?" -
MCT:July 18, 2008
A bit slow but with awesome performance by actors (especially the leading ones), an outstanding and yet charming soundtrack, a superb cinematography and unforgettable soundtrack, the really nice direction by Curran makes this love story a memorable journey. This independent movie is slow, but still, really good.
-
MCT:July 18, 2008
Absolutely glorious! A glorious throwback to the golden era of sweeping Hollywood romance with incredible performances from Watts and a beautifully restrained Edward Norton. and some of the most breathtaking cinematography I've seen in years. It's never overwraught or beautiful to the point of transparency. Alexandre Desplat's score manages the same balance between passion and moderation. God, it?s amazing. I wept like a baby, and it?s one of the few times where I felt almost satisfied, as if I owed something to the film.
-
MCT:July 18, 2008It is nicely shot ... nice locales .... ed nortan stealz the show .... the plot unfolds slowly but director makes full effort to keep ur focus intact ... a gud entertainer if u r looking out for some romantic entertainer ...
-
MCT:July 9, 2008
this was a really beautiful movie. the chinese landscape was absolutely perfect for the story. Edward Norton - who usually annoys me - was really really good in this movie. this movie was by no means perfect, but i really didn't care, because it was so darn pretty! the acting was decent, the story pretty good (and semi original for this genre of movie), and the aspect of tragedy was perfect.
a warning to those who like a happy romance: this was not a happy movie. it was very serious and throughout the entire movie there was a feeling of sadness. there were a few happier moments, but to be perfectly honest, this isn't a happy movie. it's amazing, but it's really not happy. i loved it. -
MCT:June 29, 2008
I haven't seen a film this gorgeous in years. Norton was perfection, as usual, and Watts was tolerable.
The visuals were kept a bit too sepia flavored, but still beautiful. Even admist the cholera, there was a beauty, and the love story, the story of forgiveness and acceptance was told very well. -
MCT:June 29, 2008
Beautiful periodic drama set in 1920s, China.
Edward Norton's British accent was remarkable, pure ear candy for me. Superb performances from both him and Naomi Watts. They had amazing chemistry, you could really feel the tension between these two characters.
Overall a touching love story with spectacular scenery. -
MCT:June 29, 2008
BOTTOM LINE: With steely precision, Naomi Watts and Edward Norton play a mismatched couple who can barely tolerate each other's company.
Naomi Watts and Edward Norton play an estranged couple living in 1920's China.
"The Painted Veil" sets a few fine actors to work with one of W. Somerset Maugham's 1920s tales of Occidentals confronting the Far East and their own tangled emotional lives. With steely precision, Naomi Watts and Edward Norton play a mismatched couple who can barely tolerate each other's company. Meanwhile, Liev Schreiber and Toby Jones represent in finely detailed performances two very different kinds of British colonialists in China. Crucially, screenwriter Ron Nyswaner has added a political dimension absent from Maugham's novel that gives the melodrama more complicated and meatier themes.
The two leads and positive critical reaction will help sell "Painted Veil" in adult specialty venues. The film is unusual in that it is a co-production with the Chinese. Whatever difficulties this imposed on the Western filmmakers, the reward is a period film that feel authentic to its time and place.
A white man and woman arrive in a remote, wintery part of China. As they await the arrival of porters and sedan chairs to convey them to their final destination, the movie explains their unlikely presence in this far corner of the world with a few succinct flashbacks.
Kitty (Watts), an upper-class woman on the verge of spinsterhood, meets Dr. Walter Fane (Norton), a serious-minded bacteriologist, during a party at her parents' London home. The doctor falls instantly in love with her, but she is indifferent to him. Yet when he blurts out a marriage proposal, days before he is to return to his civil service post in Shanghai, a strange thing happens: She accepts, mostly to put as much distance as possible between her and a boring family life, especially her nagging, overbearing mother.
The mismatch is clear from the moment the couple arrives in Shanghai. Now bored in a new way, Kitty carelessly starts an affair with English Vice Consul Charlie Townsend (Schreiber). When Walter discovers his wife's adultery, he punishes them both by accepting a job as doctor in Mei-tan-fu, a remote village in the grip of a deadly cholera epidemic.
Things are, if anything, worse than imagined. The couple is not only surrounded by death, but all foreigners' lives are further endangered when news reaches the village that British troops killed large numbers of Chinese demonstrators in Shanghai.
Here lies the guts to the story, in which two people actually get to know each other under extreme circumstances and gain newfound respect and eventually love before a tragic end. In this process, three very different people become snarled in their lives.
Army Colonel Yu (Anthony Wong) is none too happy to see any Westerners in his corner of the world, but he helps Walter, albeit reluctantly, execute his ideas for relieving the conditions causing the cholera. The Mother Superior (Diana Rigg) of a French convent lets the lonely housewife work with the youngsters the convent has taken in during the epidemic. In this way, Kitty slowly comes to realize what her husband is up against.
But the key person is Deputy Commissioner Waddington (Jones), who at first seems like a burnt-out case gone native with a Chinese mistress and fondness for opium. But with further contact, he proves a kind and resilient man who is a model of compassion, which both Walter and Kitty so sadly lack.
The story suffers from predictability, about which there is little director John Curran or Nyswaner can do. This is somewhat offset by highlighting the East-West conflict, in which cultural and historical imperatives cause Westerners not to understand why the Chinese are so resistant to an "aid" that comes with so many conditions attached.
Watts' Kitty is a very modern woman for 1925. While her highbrow high jinks may remind you of Lucy Tantamount in Aldous Huxley's 1928 novel "Point Counterpoint," the difference is that China throws everything in sharp relief: her boredom, fear of the unknown and the spiritual emptiness of Western self-absorption.
By contrast, Norton's doctor is almost antediluvian. He is a man from another era in his relations with both women and foreigners. He suffers whenever he experiences disappointment with each, thereby falling into silent anger and self-loathing.
Schreiber, Jones and Rigg play characters who epitomize different aspects of the colonial experience in Asia. Each has an agenda and is only kidding him- or herself that the goals are selfless and apolitical.
Curran marshals his resources well in a country notoriously difficult for foreign filmmakers. Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh and designer Tu Juhua perform magic in Guangxi Province, the 800-year-old town of Huang Yao and soundstages in Beijing, as they beautifully capture this strange land that intrigues and baffles its foreign visitors. -
MCT:June 28, 2008
Not an especially spectacular movie, it moved a little slow and was kind of predictable. But it was still done beautifully. The landscapes were gorgeous, the dialog was very beautiful, and there was amazing character depth which is something you don't get too often. The character's chemistry easily made up for the films few shortcomings
