>>REVIEW
THE PAINTED VEIL
STARRING Naomi Watts, Edward Norton and Liv Schreiber
DIRECTED BY John Curran
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The Painted Veil, from its outset, is a deeply moving exposition on love and marriage. A remake of a film from 1934 starring Greta Garbo (which itself was based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham), director John Curran instantly grabs your attention by setting up the main emotional crux of the film – tension. At first, the relationship between Kitty (Naomi Watts) and Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is coloured by tension that is cute in its awkwardness, as Walter struggles for Kitty’s attention. Later, the tension changes gears when Kitty’s adultery is uncovered and the couple moves to a remote village in China so that Walter, a doctor, can help with an outbreak of cholera.
The film is slathered with heartbreak upon heartbreak. Not only do we witness the couple’s marriage disintegrating with Walter becoming nothing short of unbelievably cruel to Kitty, but it is all set against the background of the village being wiped out by a destructive disease.
The greatest success of the film is that somehow Curran and the actors do a brilliant job of maintaining a level of humour through all the sadness – laughing to keep from crying. Watts and Norton are flawless with their comedic timing while managing to be mostly horrible to each other as the world around them falls apart. With their lives bound together and going nowhere, the challenges that the village presents brings a new purpose to them as individuals and, ultimately, as a couple.
There are moments in the film where we expect sweeping revelations and wholesale character changes, but The Painted Veil keeps its characters fairly consistent throughout. Watts and Norton are both brilliant, as much with their body language as with the dialogue. There is never a moment where you question what the characters are thinking because the actors so accurately express themselves with the most subtle of nods and twitches.
The Painted Veil is the rare film that works both as a period piece and a modern love story. Despite the abundance of pain and suffering in the movie, Curran’s lasting impression is one of happiness – even if it’s just as a means for survival. |
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