Edward Norton

Naomi Watts

Liev Schreiber

Toby Jones

Diana Rigg

Anthony Wong Chau-Sang

Yu Xia

Juliet Howland

Ian Renwick

Li Bin

Zoe Telford

Marie-Laure Descoureaux

Lorraine Laurence

Maggie Steed

Li Feng

Yan Lü

Catherine An

Bill Marcus

Maurice Herschtal

Shobauro Hiratsuka

John Cann

Yin Qing

Alan David

Sally Hawkins

Ron Nyswaner

Bob Yari

Antonia Barnard

W. Somerset Maugham

Ming Beaver Kwei

John Curran

Jean-François Fonlupt

Yasmine Golchan

Sara Colleton

Robert Katz

Ellen Lewis

Alexandre Desplat

Juhua Tu

Stuart Dryburgh

Jiakun Zhang

Alexandre de Franceschi

Mark Gordon

Wang Hong

Skip Lievsay

Peta Lawson

John Mahaffie

Byron Wilson

Paul Menichini

Derek Vanderhorst

Diva Magpayo

Simon Njoo

Gerry Nucifora

David Lee

Sherrie Liu

Wayne Lemmer

Joel Dougherty

Tim LeBlanc

Glen Wilson

Ruth Myers

Romance

Drama

The Painted Veil

Emotion Pictures

The Mark Gordon Company

Class 5 Films

Warner China Film HG Corporation

Stratus Film Co.

Bob Yari Productions

The Colleton Company

Dragon Studios

Salon Films

Syndicate Films

Warner Independent Pictures

China Film Co-Production Corp.

Canada

China

Hong Kong

United States of America

Peter McGinn

This movie seemed vaguely familiar to my wife like we had seen it before, but it all seemed new to me when we recently watched it. We both enjoyed it. I wasn’t concerned when a few reviews remarked that it moved slowly, as we have always appreciated movies that build a quiet story carefully, and mostly this one did that.

My only criticism is that at the outset of the movie, I didn’t quite believe that Walter was in love with Kitty. He said he was, but I wonder if a scene or two showing him falling for her ended up on the cutting room floor. He merely seemed to stalk her around the party and want to marry her before he left for China. Similarly, Kitty falling for Charlie didn’t seem well constructed. It felt like one scene they stared at each other, flirted a bit, and the next scene they are in bed.

But once I suspended that bit of disbelief, the film was great. Gradually Kitty develops as a character, and her marriage begins to be rebuilt from the rubble of her earlier actions.

The final scene, a few years after the action in the bulk of the movie, brings the story full circle in a satisfying manner. All around a fine movie well worth watching patiently.

I enjoyed this film a good more than I expected I would, based on the poor critical response and so-so viewer scores. Fortunately, Norton and Watts saved the film by turning in phenomenal performances. The real problem is that we never get totally invested in the characters. Nevertheless, The Painted Veil is a real love story.

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The Painted Veil Trailer