The Painted Veil

WORTH-IT (Curran): The Painted Veil offers us a portrait of a familiar love story that brings unlikely individuals together. (Think, Beauty and the Beast). Walter (Ed Norton) brings his newly wed to China with him, where he is sure to make her fall in love, or torture her for not. Unfortunately, when her feelings tend towards a mutual friend instead, he threatens her with a messy divorce and relocates himself and her to a refuge suffering from a cholera epidemic. As a viewer, I am unsure whether or not he wanted her to die from the cholera, or remain completely miserable, but the script writes beautifully of the boredom, the frustration, and the heartache that occurs beneath that motives. Naomi Watts plays wife to Norton's Walter. Her classic look of elegant simplicity makes her the perfect twenty-something looking for security in love, but yearning to hold onto the life of adventure she knew prior to marriage. The story is about self-discovery, and identifying with those around you. It's about softening the heart, and opening your mind. It's done beautifully, with extenuous mountain ranges, crystal blue rivers, and lush greenery filling your eyes in time for a cholera-filled climax threatening any chance for happiness. Well done and most enjoyed.