Friday, November 28, 2008

The Painted Veil (USA, 2006)



The painted veil is a rather tragic story between two people (Naomi Watts & Edward Norton) in a pretty difficult relationship. He is a bacteriologist and she is a rather spoiled young woman.
It sets in the twenties of the past century in China, partly in Shanghai but mostly in a little village along the Yangtze river. In this village Cholera has broken out and the character played by Edward Norton volunteers to help as a doctor and do research. He forces his wife, who is having an affair, to come with him or get a divorce. When times past by, slowly they start to find the loving parts in each other. A cruel fate awaits them.


To my opinion, it is a rather well constructed film with many beautiful scenery of China. The acting is great, as expected from the stars but I had to get used to it for about 15 minutes. The director, John Curran, creates a very intense atmosphere with a film that maybe starts a bit slow, but is full of beauty. The score is just brilliant, with the piano parts that are being played by Chinese and maybe world’s best pianist Lang Lang.

Sometimes I felt like it could be better in some ways and though that is not the best film ever it still is an intense and beautiful film!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am a lover of the works of Somerset Maughan, and have just seen the Painted veil for the first time - am
captivated, entranced, saddened, overjoyed with the beauty of the film - overwhelmed with the ending