THE PAINTED VEIL
THE PAINTED VEIL |
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Based on Somerset Maugham's novel, adultery cripples the marriage of crisp newlyweds who are dispatched into a cholera epidemic in China. | score 3 |
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| Cast Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Toby Jones, Liev Schreiber, Dianna Rigg Director John Curran Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner Country USA Rating / Running Time M / 125 minutes Australian Release April 2008 Official Site (c) moviereview
2006-2008
ABN 72 775 390 361 |
E.M.
Forster once rallied that individuals should ‘connect the prose
with the passion’. Somerset Maugham, Forster’s
contemporary, wrote The Painted Veil in 1925 and the same concerns echo
about this adaptation. Although Australian John Curran (Praise)
has crafted a sumptuous film in which two exceptional actors exact some
meticulous work, the passion is strangely disconnected from the prose.
Perhaps the problem lies with Maugham. Greta Garbo fared little better
in 1934 than Watts does seventy years later. Both play Kitty, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to the dependably dull epidemiologist Walter Fane (Norton). To brighten her days, petulant Kitty embarks on an affair with a dashing diplomat (a suitably slimy Live Schreiber) but, when caught by Fane, is dispatched with her cruelly petty husband to battle cholera in a Chinese outpost. Redemption, and their very survival, depends on their ability to thaw hatred, if not rekindle affection, and perhaps love. Curran excels in directing character. We Don’t Live Here Anymore was a riveting illustration of the unmeasurable consequences of adultery. When revisiting similar ground in an entirely different milieu, to distil the immense pain and suffering people can inflict upon one another; the result is rather more torpid than torrid. The Painted Veil is an intelligent film, a wondrous postcard from an age long gone, yet one that remains oddly bloodless despite the fierce energy of all concerned. Curran delivers an opulent creation but is unable to overcome the melodramatic undertow that ultimately reduces what should be searing drama from the school of David Lean, to an ever so pretty production from the house of Merchant-Ivory. // COLIN FRASER |