Friday, July 27, 2007
"The Painted Veil".
Bored rich girl Kitty (Naomi Watts) marries shy, overly series microbiologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton), mainly to get away from her parents who disapprove of her irreverent lifestyle. Stunned by his wife's brief affair with the caddish Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber), Walter threatens to ruin her reputation by divorcing her, unless she accompanies him into an area of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic. Against this background of hardship and disease they learn to love each other. Maybe for the first time.
Although it sometimes surfs too close to the perilous waters of self parody, I actually rather liked "The Painted Veil". I wasn't at all surprised that it had been filmed before in the 1930's. Except for some pretty graphic scenes of death by cholera, it is exactly the kind of old fashioned Sunday afternoon melodrama that my Mom used to love so much (and probably still does).
Naomi Watts suffers prettily. (Make no mistake, she is gorgeous, even unwashed and sweaty.) Edward Norton tries on an English accent and finds that it fits. (He is almost an alien from a distant civilization in his buttoned up cream suit. It works, as well, showing his isolation from his wife.) Toby Jones essays an old school English diplomat abroad. (Nearly gone native.) Liev Schrieber is a... er... cad. (Sadly without the strokable moustache). Old fashioned, solid film making. Not the kind of thing I would normally see, frankly, but a grown up proper movie, a world away from robots, wizards, green ogres and Bruce Willis in a vest.
Worth a look.
Bored rich girl Kitty (Naomi Watts) marries shy, overly series microbiologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton), mainly to get away from her parents who disapprove of her irreverent lifestyle. Stunned by his wife's brief affair with the caddish Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber), Walter threatens to ruin her reputation by divorcing her, unless she accompanies him into an area of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic. Against this background of hardship and disease they learn to love each other. Maybe for the first time.
Although it sometimes surfs too close to the perilous waters of self parody, I actually rather liked "The Painted Veil". I wasn't at all surprised that it had been filmed before in the 1930's. Except for some pretty graphic scenes of death by cholera, it is exactly the kind of old fashioned Sunday afternoon melodrama that my Mom used to love so much (and probably still does).
Naomi Watts suffers prettily. (Make no mistake, she is gorgeous, even unwashed and sweaty.) Edward Norton tries on an English accent and finds that it fits. (He is almost an alien from a distant civilization in his buttoned up cream suit. It works, as well, showing his isolation from his wife.) Toby Jones essays an old school English diplomat abroad. (Nearly gone native.) Liev Schrieber is a... er... cad. (Sadly without the strokable moustache). Old fashioned, solid film making. Not the kind of thing I would normally see, frankly, but a grown up proper movie, a world away from robots, wizards, green ogres and Bruce Willis in a vest.
Worth a look.
Labels: Movies
# posted by Pynchon @ 10:11 pm 
