Tweet

Wow! Those British have really been everywhere around the globe and left some quite interesting stories behind them. Colonialist tales where upper class white people and local folk are mixing it together amidst constant political stir. Well, not in such joyful manner anyway. A story like that exactly is the old Somerset Maugham novel, “The Painted Veil”, brought to screen for the second time around by young director John Curran.

In an era of British colonialism, Kitty (Naomi Watts) is a miserable upper class unmarried girl, something her mother doesn’t approve. To stay away from her home, she accepts a marriage proposal from Walter Fane (Edward Norton), a bacteriologist situated in Shangai. Life along the local colonialist snobs isn’t much fascinating and Kitty falls in the hands of Charlie (Liev Schreiber), a diplomat with an important position and an eye for pretty girls. When Walter finds out he makes her follow him to the Chinese countryside where he volunteered to help fight cholera. The rough and hostile environment stirs things up between the estranged couple and their fate turns around…

Norton portrays a shy and introverted scientist who believes in his knowledge but not very much in himself. When he marries Kitty he knows she doesn’t love him yet he tries to reform her. She, on the other hand, despises her class’s conventions but falls right into them. A forced marriage is an adultery waiting to happen and silence is gold in the hypocritical world of the colonies’ aristocrats. Her punishment though becomes her lesson in real life, she learns how to do what she idolized from her tower, love.

China’s colonization has sparked some well photographed exotic dramas, though not all as politically engaged as one would expect. John Curran in “The Painted Veil”, tries to make the political background more obvious without superseding the main story, the Fane’s family drama, and he succeeds. Russian educated Colonel Yu, is a discrete anti-British presence while trying to balance between the need for controlling the plague and local nationalist rage. A political conversation here, some colonialist brutality there and we have a simple picture of what the atmosphere was like in urban and rural China.

There are parallels drawn throughout the film. For example, the enslaved girl in a local play resembles Kitty, who got enslaved by her will to escape her family and the central couple’s simplistic view of life seems close to the pseudo-innocence of the theories behind colonization’s “noble” intentions. However, what remains is a strong romantic drama without extremes which maybe engaging to some or indifferent to others.

The performances are very good, Norton is obviously capable of many roles and Watts is very natural as the spoiled big girl who has yet to become a grown woman. Toby Jones excels in the part of the British local civil servant, the last one left and Diana Rigg is likable as the wise old nun.

“The Painted Veil” is neither too long for it’s own good nor does it go for the easy teardrops. It’s well crafted, played and photographed, complemented with a nice musical score.