Review of The Painted Veil (2006) by Ryan Y — 11 Jul 2015
Not my cup of Oolong. This film has all the trappings of something I'd typically enjoy: the 1920s, imperial China and a powerful story of love and redemption. The sum of these pieces fell flat, however, between the shaky performances and formulaic melodrama.
What should have been a sweeping epic the likes of Out of Africa was reduced to a series of montages as predictable as a line of dominoes. Without any useful exposition I was left bemused from the moment an esteemed doctor fell head over heels for a society girl, only to be disappointed when he realised she only liked parlour games and small talk.
Later attempts to breathe life into these two dimensional characters rendered them reminiscent of a school craft show diorama; pieces of stacked card and bits of exposed string. Either the screenwriter is guilty of crimes of omission or there's a pile of celluloid on a cutting room floor that would have given this sickly film a fresh drip of saline.
This review of The Painted Veil (2006) was written by Ryan Y on 11 Jul 2015.
The Painted Veil has generally received very positive reviews.
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