The Painted Veil

The Painted Veil
The story of a young english couple walter a middle class doctor & kitty an upper-class woman who get married for the wrong reason & relocate to shanghai where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity he takes a job in china & takes her along which brings new meaning to them. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/06/2008 Starring: Naomi Watts Liev Schriber Run time: 125 minutes Rating: Pg13
Customer Review: The Painted Veil
Great movie - with lessons in life : one has a capacity to change, to be better, to be kind.
Customer Review: Ed Norton stretches the envelope here
For those wondering if this slender American whose defining movie is probably "Fight Club" also can bring off a period piece set in China requiring him to master a role as an educated Englishman, the answer is mainly "yes." The viewer may not entirely forget that Norton is from Columbia, Md., rather than the UK, but Norton brings the requisite reserved honor and decency to the story as Walter Fane, a cuckolded bacteriologist working to combat cholera and deal with the aftermath of his bored wife's adultery. "The Painted Veil" features apparently stock Maugham characters such as the Fanes' neighbor, a shabby British expat who knows the ropes in a lost corner of southern China, and lives with a Chinese woman, whose relationship to her is more complex than it appears on the surface and seems to have more true devotion than the Vane's difficult marriage. This is the kind of film that may seem a bit formulaic on initial viewing but one that grows in the memory as highly recommendable. Days later I find myself thinking of Fane's slowly revealed honor both as a professional dealing with a region near collapse and dealing with a wife who betrays him but eventually sees her husband's strengths and the validity of emulating his efforts to help others. China travelers will revel in this beautiful look at the countryside around Guilin, arguably the most beautiful part of China, known for its sharks-tooth limestone mountains famous in classic scroll paintings.