Cholera rips through the country while deceit rips apart their marriage.
The Painted Veil depicts a British couple’s ups and downs (mostly downs) during a cholera epidemic in China. The beautiful cinematography and shot composition during this film were brilliant enough to distract the audience from Edward Norton’s lack luster attempt at an English accent. While it really wasn’t very believable, you got used to it as the movie went on. This tragic story fiercely pulled at your emotions from all angles, there were times when I felt that Edward Norton was a complete monster, but by the end, the story gave the audience what we needed to really feel for him and even more so for his desperate and lost wife. The Painted Veil had all the elements of a classic story of adultery, redemption and re-connection with an end that took a turn for the worst just as you thought it was getting better. But the time period and setting in which it took place was really what set this movie off from so many others like it. While I think the film could have used a Chinese perspective to help us feel more from the side of the down trodden Chinese, throughout the film they were portrayed mostly as people who are too superstitious to know what’s in their own best interest. The character Colonel Yu, played by Anthony Wong-Chau Sang , was quiet the interesting character, he had a very fascinating background and personality but the director John Curran did not develop this character for its entire potential, and I think more character development for him would have taken The Painted Veil to another level. If you are in the mood for a tragic romance The Painted Veil should most definitely top your list, but if you are easily annoyed by fake accents and think women’s rights are for sissy’s then perhaps you’d be better off skipping over this one on the shelf. Supported by a brunette Naomi Watts’ terrific performance The Painted Veil is an emotionally powerful tragic romance that takes the audience across the world to learn the lesson of forgiveness.
The Painted Veil depicts a British couple’s ups and downs (mostly downs) during a cholera epidemic in China. The beautiful cinematography and shot composition during this film were brilliant enough to distract the audience from Edward Norton’s lack luster attempt at an English accent. While it really wasn’t very believable, you got used to it as the movie went on. This tragic story fiercely pulled at your emotions from all angles, there were times when I felt that Edward Norton was a complete monster, but by the end, the story gave the audience what we needed to really feel for him and even more so for his desperate and lost wife. The Painted Veil had all the elements of a classic story of adultery, redemption and re-connection with an end that took a turn for the worst just as you thought it was getting better. But the time period and setting in which it took place was really what set this movie off from so many others like it. While I think the film could have used a Chinese perspective to help us feel more from the side of the down trodden Chinese, throughout the film they were portrayed mostly as people who are too superstitious to know what’s in their own best interest. The character Colonel Yu, played by Anthony Wong-Chau Sang , was quiet the interesting character, he had a very fascinating background and personality but the director John Curran did not develop this character for its entire potential, and I think more character development for him would have taken The Painted Veil to another level. If you are in the mood for a tragic romance The Painted Veil should most definitely top your list, but if you are easily annoyed by fake accents and think women’s rights are for sissy’s then perhaps you’d be better off skipping over this one on the shelf. Supported by a brunette Naomi Watts’ terrific performance The Painted Veil is an emotionally powerful tragic romance that takes the audience across the world to learn the lesson of forgiveness.
Overall (now out of 10):
3 comments:
you may be a big fan of edward norton. you may want anthony wong to have more character, but in this film, the star is naomi watts who not only is first-listed on the cast as per the opening credits and the poster, her character kitty fane and her story is also the focus of this film. SHE IS NOT SUPPORTING. both norton and wong are supporting her. she is the one that stands out in the film with a performance praised by most film critics as oscar-worthy, as you say, terrific. but i think she deserves more of your attention in your mini-review.
Perhaps. I however feel that if you're good you're good (which she was), not much else needs to be said. Kitty was the kind of character one sees everywhere, the trapped wife living in the shadow of her husband, a character I believe anyone could play.
well, from your name i guess you're a woman yourself and it's hard to believe that you can demean kitty fane to a stereotyped hollywood wife under the shadow of her husband (a man). fortunately this is not the woman that somerset maugham, the producers of this film and in particular naomi watts saw and portrayed.
in the preface of the first published copy of the book, maugham wrote specifically about its story: "a woman married to a scientist in hong kong falls in love with an attractive philanderer. when her husband discovers the affair he insists on her accompanying him upon a dangerous mission to an area of the colony infested by cholera, and on that harsh pilgrimage of retribution she learns the difference between illusion and reality, and she progressed from being spoiled and pampered to coming into a mature understanding of herself and the world around her. "
what maugham and watts did for kitty fane is respectable and if you as a woman could not see that it's a real shame. regards.
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