Kitty Fane is a frivolous young English woman who longs for romance and excitement, trapped in a loveless marriage to a staid Shanghai researcher. When her husband learns she has had an affair, he volunteers to fight a cholera epidemic in China's war-torn interior. Dr. Fane forces his wife to accompany him on the difficult and hazardous journey, endangering her life in the process.
First of all I have to say that the characters are extremely well written. They were two-dimensional, if not three. Especially Walter Fane. He was clumsy and good-hearted man, but also very ruthless and cold when he wanted to. Then again I think his character wasn't very well explored, he showed his very abusive side but it was for like few minutes, and then nothing - except that he didn't really give a shit if Kitty would die or not, in fact that seemed almost like a good opportunity for him. But then he developed again, I don't know it was weird. Kitty was also interesting - she didn't want to marry, but she did anyway, because she overheard her mom saying that she's lost her hope for Kitty anyway. Even though the characters were well written, not many of them were likeable. I never like Dr. Fane, I liked Kitty only because I could indentify, in a way, with her. I'm not saying I've been through that stuff, but I can see how painful her life must've been. But I don't think I liked her. I don't think I liked anyone, but is that important?
Cinematography in this movie is great. It was visually very pleasing, and then again unpleasant, when it needed to be. I mean you can't show cholera patients and make it visually pleasing to the eye.
One problem was the dialogue, though. Painted Veil takes place in 1920s, but still I think they tried way too hard to make the dialogue sound real. Now here's a good tip for writing dialogue: even if it takes place in some era in history, where they have certain speech patterns, don't write it like that. If you read dialogue like that it feels so unreal and forced, and so it does in movies. I understand that if the book was written like that, since it was published in 1925, but that dialogue and writing was for the audience of that time. This movie was made in 2006 for the modern audience. There is a way to make the dialogue timeless, and not make it sound daft. Why is this so hard for some screenwriters to understand?
The beginning of the movie was quite long, but also weirdly fast. Especially I think it was a mistake to show the Fanes travelling to the town with the cholera epidemic. We don't know yet where they are going, nothing is explain. Then whoops, we skip few years back and see how they met, and then we see them travelling again, and then we skip back again. It was really useless, but then we didn't get to know, how the affair between Kitty and Charlie started, suddenly they just were... doing it. And no explanation, like what happened between them? Preferable way to do this would be to show little bits, when needed, in flashbacks. Like maybe start with how they met and how Dr Fane proposed and everything. Then skip to the actual starting point and then show little bit.
Then again this brings up the problem, that how long would've the audience waited for an explanation to Dr Fane's hatred towards his wife. I guess the structure in the story just couldn't be made into a film so that it would be completely perfect. I don't know.
I really like Naomi Watts and Edward Norton's chemistry. It's a weird kind of chemistry, I don't know, they are perfect for portraying couples who aren't completely happy. They worked together in Birdman (Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) as a couple, who broke up during the story, because Norton's character, who had been apparently suffering from sexual impotence, suddenly tried to fuck her on stage. So yeah, there's that and then theres the Fanes from The Painted Veil. Somehow I just really like their chemistry in these kind of things.
But why did Kitty's hair stay so perfect in a small, hot village in the middle of China? Like who did her hair, because in her situation, I wouldn't be bothered.
The story of The Painted Veil was good, though I kept losing interest to it towards the end. It didn't turn out what I expected it to be. It could've been easily edited a bit more, because honestly, two hours was way too long. It's worth seeing once, though, it's a very well made movie, even if you wouldn't like it.
☆☆☆☆
4 / 10
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