Starring Edward Norton, Naomi Watts; Directed by John Curran
E.M. Forster once railed that individuals should ‘connect the prose with the passion’. Somerset Maugham, Forster’s contemporary, wrote The Painted Veil in 1925 and the same concerns echo about this adaptation.
Although Australian John Curran (Praise) has crafted a sumptuous film in which two exceptional actors do some meticulous work, the passion is strangely disconnected from the prose.
Kitty is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to the dependably dull epidemiologist Walter Fane. To brighten her days she embarks on an affair with a dashing diplomat, but when caught by Fane, is dispatched with her husband to battle cholera in a Chinese outpost. Redemption, and their very survival, depends on their ability to rekindle affection, and perhaps love.
Curran’s We Don’t Live Here Anymore was a riveting illustration of the unmeasurable consequences of adultery. When revisiting similar ground in an entirely different milieu, the result is rather more torpid than torrid. The Painted Veil is an intelligent film, a wondrous postcard from an age long gone, yet one that remains oddly bloodless despite the fierce energies of all concerned. Curran is unable to overcome the melodramatic undertow that ultimately reduces what should be searing drama from the school of David Lean, to an ever so pretty production from the house of Merchant-Ivory.
Starring Edward Norton, Naomi Watts; Directed by John Curran
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