Sunday, January 07, 2007

Movie Report: The Painted Veil

The Painted Veil is like looking at National Geographic illustrations with a plotline attached. Set in China in 1922, every frame of this movie is a stunning photograph. The lighting is soft and bathed in a golden glow. The plotline has an excellent pedigree. It is based on a book of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham.

The story is not complicated. A serious physician and medical researcher, played by Edward Norton, back in England for a brief leave, spots and instantly falls in love with a beautiful, but vacuous young woman, Naomi Watts, who marries him out of a lack of anything better to do and goes off with him to China where he is helping to fight cholera epidemics. As the newly-weds get to know each other, it becomes clear to everyone that the marriage was a mistake. He exists only for his bacteria; she is interested in partying and socializing. She soon starts an affair with a debonair cad in the small British expatriate community, an affair which is quickly discovered by the young husband. To punish the wife, the husband forces her to accompany him to an isolated area in the interior, in the middle of a cholera outbreak. Predictably enough, she eventually, out of boredom, starts helping out in a Catholic orphanage and discovers the virtues of living for others; he gets a new-found respect for his wife, and they fall in love, for real this time, but too late to live happily ever after.

The story was first made into a movie in 1934 with Greta Garbo playing the Naomi Watts role. I have never seen that movie, so I can't compare the jobs Garbo and Watts did. I really like Watts's performance, though. She gives a strong performance, although not one for which I would nominate her for any Academy awards. I may be suffering from Edward Norton fatigue. I thought he played essentially the same early 20th century person in this movie that he did in the recent The Illusionist, about which I was unenthusiastic as well.

Overall, The Painted Veil adds up to less than the sum of its parts. My overall impression at the end of the movie was that I had just watched a "chick flick." A beautifully photographed chick flick but a chick flick nevertheless. In all fairness, the chick who watched the flick with me disagreed with my assessment. She gave it four out of five stars, while I only gave it three; three and a half stars, at the most, if the chick decides to really battle for the rating.

4 comments:

Richard Steandric Ricsteand said...

may i ask which other performances have you seen that you would consider better than watts' in this and for which you would nominate for the academy award? i think watts' is better than mirren's with which the ny observer film critic glenn whipp agrees. i've also seen winslet's in little children and cruz's in volver and they're no match to watts' in my opinion. why would you hesitate to nominate her if you thought her performance was great? as to your saying that this film is a chick flick. what can i say but lmao.

Crockhead said...

Thanks for your comment, Richard. From your blog, I take it you're a Naomi Watts fan. Good for you. She's pretty, did a good job in The Painted Veil and deserves dedicated fans. I don't have any candidates for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress yet, because I'm not sure which films are eligible. I did see Helen Mirren in The Queen and I think I agree with you that Watts is at least as good as Mirren in that movie. DiCaprio really blew me away with his performance in The Queen. (I'm not very savy with internet abbreviations. What does Imao mean?)

Richard Steandric Ricsteand said...

hi amishlaw,

i'm glad to hear that you agree that naomi watts' performance in the painted veil is at least as good as helen mirren's in the queen. hence why not say it (albeit notionally) that she should be nominated for the academy award along with mirren, who i think, sadly, has already been crowned by people who want her to win this year.

i think you meant DiCaprio in The Departed.

no offence, lmao means "laugh my ass off". i think your saying that the painted veil is a chick flick is the funniest comment i've ever read so far about this excellent film.

Crockhead said...

I'm not ready to hand the Best Actress award to either Watts or Mirren, although I might change my mind when I see who the other candidates are. I don't pay much attention to what the professional critics say. You're right, DiCaprio wasn't in The Queen.