Review of The Painted Veil (2006) by Holli Y — 13 Sep 2010

"We humans are more complex than your silly little microbes. We're unpredictable. We make mistakes and we disappoint.".

Set primarily in China during a cholera outbreak in 1925, The Painted Veil is about a bacteriologist that intentionally takes his young wife to a cholera-stricken village in order to punish her for her infidelity. The couple seems unsuited for each other from the very beginning, but as the stress of the crisis that they're involved in reveals different parts of their personalities to one another, they may find a way to make something less of a disaster of their marriage.

Beyond the obvious relationship aspect of The Painted Veil, it also gives a pretty startling look at how disease was treated at that time, as well as what the British footprint was like in China. I found those parts of the story to really be more interesting than the stuff between Watts and Norton. Other than their dodgy British accents, I though they were fine in their roles. It just would have been nice if events didn't play out exactly as almost anyone could have guessed after the first ten minutes.

How much you enjoy this period movie will depend directly on how much interest you can put into its fairly typical plot. I thought it was okay; no better and no worse.