Review of The Painted Veil (2006) by Eric H — 20 Oct 2008

I thought this might be a bit sappy, but I actually loved this story of infidelity and bitter revenge set against 1920's China and a cholera epidemic. First off, I tried to hate Naomi Watts for her spoiled and cheating ways, but there is something about her that makes it hard to hate even her character.

So I started off hating her and I loved how Norton treated her with such complete disregard for her life and his (the scene when they both eat possibly contaminated food is hilarious). Yes, I loved those scenes; I thought they were meant to be a bit funny as well because this film needed to be slightly darkly comedic for it to work otherwise it would have been a miserable drawn out affair.

Of course, these characters change a bit and there is some honest drama later in the film, but it is because of the earlier slightly funny scenes that make the later stuff seem interesting.