Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #426 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-03
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Synopsis
The third film version of Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel--directed by John Curran--is ripe with stunning Chinese locales and a smart turn from Naomi Watts as Kitty Fane, the aging English socialite who must put herself in strange and turbulent surroundings before she finds her true self. A complex and beautiful international production, this adaptation benefits greatly from the lack restrictions that inhibited it’s previous incarnations in 1925 (with Greta Garbo) and in 1957 (as THE SEVENTH SIN). After pressure from her wealthy parents to settle down, Kitty (Naomi Watts) marries mild-mannered bacteriologist Walter (Edward Norton), despite her lack of love for him. Shortly after their vows, he takes her to Shanghai, where she immediately has an affair with Charles Townsend (Liev Shrieber), an English Vice Consul. Walter becomes aware of Kitty’s indiscretion and promptly whisks her away to the mountain village of Mei-tan-fu, where they befriend another English expat, the secretly decadent Deputy Commissioner Waddington (Toby Jones, in an extremely likeable performance). Walter begins working to hold an encroaching cholera epidemic at bay---leaving Kitty to ponder her role in the situation as death looms over the village like a spectre. A labour of love that took the better part of a decade for producer Norton and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner, THE PAINTED VEIL is a large, complex, and visually sumptuous production that employed a primarily Chinese crew on its intense location shoots. Norton’s passion for the material is on full display, as he turns in another solid performance. Watts, however, who portrayed another unfaithful wife in Curran’s previous film WE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (2004), is the heart of the film, all bee-stung lips and sweat on porcelain skin. Romantic, escapist entertainment in the best sense, THE PAINTED VEIL is yet more proof that there is an endless pool of silver screen potential in the classics of literature.

Customer Reviews

Beautiful adaptation
For some reason this film bypassed me on its first release, but eventually I caught up with it at the cinema and on dvd. If you like intelligent, beautifully acted literary adaptations, if you like beautiful scenery, and if you like real emotional content in your films, I heartily recommend The Painted Veil.

It's set in China during the rise of the Nationalist movement (1920s), and really benefits from actually being filmed there. It revolves around the relationship of a married couple Walter and Kitty Fane - brilliantly portrayed by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.
Kitty marries Walter to escape from her mother, despite not being in love with him. They begin married life in Shanghai, where they are soon in the middle of the ex-pat British community where Kitty meets a government official and begins an affair. When Walter discovers her infidelity he exacts a fairly nasty revenge: accepting a post in an rural area called Mei Tan Fu with a cholera epidemic and insisting Kitty accompanies him. The main part of the story unfolds here, and is where you really get to know the characters and see them discovering each other.
At first there is anger and bitterness (he for her betrayal and his own foolishness in marrying her, she for his revenge but more for her lover's betrayal), but in the difficult environment they are forced onto their own resources. This is particularly enlightening for Kitty who has previously led a fairly shallow and frivolous life.
As Kitty and Walter discover there is more to respect in each other, they gradually fall in love against a backdrop of both Nationalist unrest and the local politics of trying to keep the cholera at bay.
The excellent leads are superbly supported by Liev Schrieber as the faithless lover, Toby Jones as a cynical neighbour, and Diana Rigg as the Mother Superior of the convent which provides the nursing support to Doctor Fane and his assistant, and a fantastic Chinese cast.

It's a film you can watch again and again because it works on so many levels.

The scenery and Diana Rigg saves it.
This is one of those films which offers so much, and delivers it with the scenery and fine detail. The down side being the two leading actors, Naomi Watts and Edward Norton, who dominate every scene to the detriment to all the minor parts. Diana Rigg shines through, and a lessor actor would try to steal scenes, (the two leads do enough of that). All in all, not the best film I have ever seen, and not one which I will race to watch again. The pace is rather plodding and the plot all too obvious.

Saved by the scenery
The plot is rather dull & predictable but the overall viewing experience is made enjoyable by the spectacular Chinese scenery & commendable performances by the lead characters.

Not recommended however