Few films is the multiplexes today pack the sheer grandeur of "The Painted Veil" the well written and conceived adaptation of the Sommerset Maugham novel of the first part of the 20th century.
My wife cries at most films. In fact she often cries during the previews of a particular emotional scene. Needless to say the waterworks were on not only for her but myself as well as this film meets it dramatic climax.
For Edward Norton 2006 will be remembered as a banner year (though no Oscar nominations) He was a cool guy in "The Illusionist" and the ultimate nerd in this film portraying a bacteriologist who takes his unfaithful wife to the heart of China to deal with of all things a cholera epidemic. Dangerous for a young wife, one might conclude. Norton's character does not care as the love hence felt for his wife has been supplanted by hatred and a thirst for revenge. Naomi Watts is also pitch perfect as the woman who comes to understand her husband and fall deeply in love with him. The resolution of this development is something that I will not spoil here.
Visually the film is one of the most appealing in release as the camera extracts pastels and muted colors from the beautiful landscape (earning a cinematography nod)As with Merchant Ivory like films, "The Painted Veil" is here briefly to be cherished as they are making fewer and fewer like it. The "wait till it comes out on DVD" excuse is ill advised here as the splendor would be lost, lost even on a 60 inch plasma....
My wife cries at most films. In fact she often cries during the previews of a particular emotional scene. Needless to say the waterworks were on not only for her but myself as well as this film meets it dramatic climax.
For Edward Norton 2006 will be remembered as a banner year (though no Oscar nominations) He was a cool guy in "The Illusionist" and the ultimate nerd in this film portraying a bacteriologist who takes his unfaithful wife to the heart of China to deal with of all things a cholera epidemic. Dangerous for a young wife, one might conclude. Norton's character does not care as the love hence felt for his wife has been supplanted by hatred and a thirst for revenge. Naomi Watts is also pitch perfect as the woman who comes to understand her husband and fall deeply in love with him. The resolution of this development is something that I will not spoil here.
Visually the film is one of the most appealing in release as the camera extracts pastels and muted colors from the beautiful landscape (earning a cinematography nod)As with Merchant Ivory like films, "The Painted Veil" is here briefly to be cherished as they are making fewer and fewer like it. The "wait till it comes out on DVD" excuse is ill advised here as the splendor would be lost, lost even on a 60 inch plasma....