Sunday, December 31, 2006

Movie review: The Painted Veil

By John P. Meyer

The Painted Veil

Set in the 1920s, this love story is about a young English couple (a doctor and a society girl) who marry hastily. They relocate to Hong Kong where they betray each other easily, but then they find an unexpected chance at redemption and happiness while on a deadly journey into the heart of ancient China.

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on The Painted Veil

I'd like The Painted Veil to have been a better film. I mean, it's got a lot going for it: the gorgeous and expressive Naomi Watts, the intense and enigmatic Edward Norton, a literate (at times perhaps a trifle TOO bloody literate, don't you know, old chap) script and the sort of exotic setting (Guangxi Province in southern China) in which the Dir. of Cinematography could feasibly just turn on the camera and take the rest of the day off - the scenery is simply that spectacular.

But - and here's the rub - it's all so damn inconsequential. I mean, when you set out to film a story about post-Victorian upper-crusty colonial English folk who are either bored or boring (and frequently both), no matter how good looking they are on screen, your audience will lose interest after awhile. At least, I did. Maybe the fact that the story transpires in a transitional period between major social and political upheavals (1925) also contributes to the ho-hum feel of things.

Speaking of upheavals: the external conflict driving the action (as opposed to the interpersonal drama involving the Kitty-Walter characters) centers on a cholera outbreak in a Chinese rural population, and folks, let me tell you that this cholera thing is no fun for anyone - including filmgoers watching a special-effects-produced cinematic made-up version of it ("I don't really have cholera, but I pretend to in the movies. BARF!")

Say hello to my little bacterium friend.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the movie while I was watching the it: its themes of spiritual vs. sexual love; duty to others and personal sacrifice vs. self interest; and the miraculous way that love between two people can grow and deepen over time, healing old wounds - these are all quite eloquently explored during the two hour screen time. What disappoints is that, a couple of days after seeing it, nothing much about the film lingers in memory.

Director John Curran is something of a mystery figure: there's not much information about him on the net, and his list of previously distributed films is a short one. He's a native New Yorker and Syracuse alum who lived in Australia for about a decade, and he appears to be quite chummy (lucky bastard) with Aussie-born Naomi Watts, with whom he made a film called We Don't Live Here Anymore in 2004. Perhaps that connection had something to do with his landing the directorial duties on the present film, particularly since both Naomi and Eddie (Mr. Norton, to chums) acted as producers. Curran's direction is, I admit, thoroughly adequate: he uses his talent, staging and scenery resources to good effect. But when all is said and done I just wish he'd done something to shake us viewers up a bit - maybe knocked the camera off its mounting a time or two, or thrown in a behind-the-convent glimpse of Mother Superior (Diana Rigg) delivering orphans into the hands of slavers ... anything to break the monotony.

ZZZzzz...

Watts and Norton both turn in engaging performances, though Norton appears to struggle somewhat with the stilted dialogue that screenwriter Ron Nyswaner apparently took pains to keep true to its Maughamian source material. As a result we encounter such smirk-and-or-cringe-inducing sections of conversation as the bit where Kitty asks cuckolded husband Walter whether he can possibly be serious about taking her into the midst of a cholera epidemic: "Do you think that I am not?"

The only remotely edgy element of the script is the way the two characters attempt to punish each other for their mutually rotten behavior (her infidelity; his coldness and inattention) by engaging in flagrantly risky prancing around the cholera maypole. It almost becomes a game of "I'm going to get sick and die before you do, NYA, NYA!" In the end, it’s a toss up as to who'll win.

SURE SIGN YOUR BEDTIME PREFERENCES MAY BE INCONGRUOUS WITH THOSE OF YOUR NEW SPOUSE:

"Shall I shut the lamp?" - Walter to Kitty, as a preface to lovemaking

"What for?" - Kitty to Walter

A NUN'S STORY:

"We've settled into a relationship of peaceful indifference." - Mother Superior to Kitty, referring to her relationship with God

REVIEWER'S FAVORITE QUOTE:

"Anyone for a cocktail?"

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