Review of The Painted Veil (2006) by David M — 08 Jan 2010

A study in misery. Miserable people, in a miserable marriage, living in a miserable situation, dealing with a miserable disease. Love in the time of cholera (just kidding, that movie was awful), but thats what this is too. A story of atonement, and of misery. Overall though, it is somehow enjoyable. The acting is phemomenal, and while the story is predictable (you know someone is getting cholera, I mean, its there teh whole movie, someone's getting the damn disease) its enjoyable to watch it unfold.

When Dr. Faine(?) falls in love with a beautiful woman Kitty, he asks her to marry him the next day, because he leaves for China the next day. When her mother reminds her that she's getting old, and still being supported by her parents, she begrudgingly accepts. She doesn't love him, and he's not exactly a charmer. He's nice, but dull. She falls for Charlie, who is also married. When Dr. Faine finds out, he gives her an ultimatum; be divorced for adultery, or come with him to a cholera epidemic in the chinese wilderness. After she realizes she's just a fling to Charlie, she has no choice but to go. It is a punishment of the most severe kind. They despise each other, and he just wants to see her miserable. However, there is atonement over time, and they actually fall in love, although it takes almost the whole movie, which you're thankful for in this case.

There is a line that Naomi Watts says, "To think a woman should love a man for his virtues" or something to that effect. Thats what the movie is about. Surrounded by all this misery and contempt they have for each other, the disease, the death, the local uprisings, and the life of failed love, they learn to see the good in each other, because it shines so much brighter when surrounded by so much darkness. Would they have fallen in love without this situation, and the amount of time it actually took to happen? No, and if they had both survived it and left, I doubt they would've stayed in love. But under dire and grueling circumstances, you learn how trivial some things are, and how what is really important is that there is something to be loved in most people.