The Painted Veil Review by Jesse (4.5 Stars)

The Painted Veil Review by Jesse (4.5 Stars) | MatchFlick

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Movie Details

All Movie Info

Starring:
Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Toby Jones, Sally Hawkins, Juliet Howland, Toby Jones

Directed By:
John Curran

Written By:
Ron Nyswaner

The Painted Veil (2006)

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Movie Review by Jesse
January 28th, 2007

What a treat: The same love story, told twice.

You may be thinking enough with these kinds of films already. Americans go to China to help the Chinese with their problems and in their stay there, they end up Americanizing the Chinese culture. It isn't that way at all, though. There are very strong and independent Chinese characters and the Americans are the ones who are aiding them with no expectations of reciprocity.

This film is basically a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple, Walter (Norton), a middle class doctor and Kitty (Watts), an upper class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai where Kitty falls in love with someone else. When Walter discovers her infidelity, he is outraged and accepts a job in a remote village near Hong Kong which is plagued by the cholera epidemic and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places in the world.

This is a gorgeous film with breathtaking visuals. The cinematography is so revealing of the wonderful landscape and culture of Hong Kong and the Art Direction and Costume Design are wonderful, as well. The score by Alexandre Desplat is brilliant. He has created two scores this year that are just astonishing; his second being The Queen. This film, unfortunately, has been left out at the Oscars in these categories. A shame, really.

Edward Norton and Naomi Watts are terrific and have such great screen presence. They never fail to impress me. The sadness in Naomi Watts eyes as she stares upon the cholera stricken children is one of the most memorable scenes this year for me. She is one amazing actress and can really express what she feels not only with her dialogue, but with her gestures and facial expressions, too. She is great.

In my opinion, this film is underrated. I think that it's so limited right now that most people haven't even heard of it. Give it a few more months and I bet more people will be enjoying this film just as I did. It's truly genuine with characters you will love and a story that is romantic, inspiring and heartbreaking.

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