cover_image The Painted Veil
Actor(s): Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Toby Jones, Diana Rigg
Director(s): John J. Curran


Details

MPAA Rating: PG-13
Content Advisory: Brief Nudity, Sexual Situations, Drug Content
Movie Release: 2006
DVD Release: 05/08/2007
Format: DVD - Color,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Number of Discs: 1
Run Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
Studio: Warner Home Video
Members Wishing: 37
Genres: Period Film, Marriage Drama, Drama

Synopsis

A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this \romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast

Naomi Watts - Kitty Fane
Edward Norton - Walter Fane
Liev Schreiber - Charlie Townsend
Toby Jones - Waddington
Diana Rigg - Mother Superior


Awards

2006Best Screenplay (nominee)Independent Spirit AwardsRon Nyswaner
2006Best Actor (nominee)Independent Spirit AwardsEdward Norton
2006Best Adapted Screenplay (winner)National Board of ReviewRon Nyswaner
2006Best Cinematography (Runner-up) (winner)Boston Society of Film CriticsStuart Dryburgh
2006Best Music Score (winner)Los Angeles Film Critics AssociationAlexandre Desplat
2006Best Original Score (winner)Golden GlobeAlexandre Desplat

Member Reviews

Vanessa V. (sevenspiders) - POUND RIDGE, NY wrote on 7/4/2008...

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
This was a beautiful and poignant love story, a love story for grown-ups about forgiveness, redemption and learning things about yourself that you never suspected. Fantastic acting, beautiful cinematography, sad but uplifting, this was a truly great movie.

Robey S. (Robey) wrote on 6/1/2008...

2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Edward Norton is a very versatile actor and I love anything he's in, this was no exception. Good love story, sad, but not gooshy. There were no dull or slow parts for me. Really, really good!


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