The Painted Veil - a great tragedy of a film!
July 7th 2007 12:10
The greatest cinematic tragedy of the decade
The film is clearly a project of passion.
Sadly, none of it rubs off on-screen. The Painted Veil at its core is a movie as boring as it is bored, weighted down by the thrall of its own majesty and mastery.
Those who have read the classic novel will naturally be swift to point out that the book is now somewhat dated, subscribing to a formula which long since ceased to be either contraversial or readable.
Set in 1925, The Painted Veil is the story of a young Britisher Kitty Garstin (Watts), who marries a somewhat shy and seemingly dull man, Doctor Walter Fane (Norton) in order to escape her tyrannical mother.
Naomia Watts and Edward Norton give potantially great performances
This is the well-worn character-play around which the story revolves, with the cholera epidemic in the fractured couple's new location as a dramatic backdrop. Enter Toby Jones and Diana Rigg as a British Official and a French Mother Superior respectively.
The way is set for what could and should have been a truly emotive story. Formulaic - troubled souls grow and heal in the face of extreme adversity - it might still have grasped a subplot of inspiring relevence had it not been for the insistence of the screenplay to focus exclusively on the two sparring lovers instead of allowing more completely for the stunning events taking place around them.
The 1920's were a period of extraordinary cultural and political revoltuion in China - and yet these are events drifted over by the cemras with a casual air that smacks of laziness and even racism.
Diana Rigg gives a beautiful and touching performance
As for the incredible and tumultuous political events of the period? They are employed as a minor plot device to help reuinite the couple!
Naturally this faithfully adheres to the novel by Maugham - and thoroughly ignores the ability of cinema to capture such subtle nuances of plot and protray them as a powerful undercurrent to the story.
What might have been a truly important film with relevent political, cultural and social commentaries is hopelessly wasted - and all seemingly because it couldn't be bothered. I use the word "it" by way of referring to the film and instead of "they" referring to those who are responsible for making it as it is difficult to know which of "them" is most at fault in the instance of The Painted Veil.
Naomi Watts and Edward Norton take truly sublime characters and give them unutterably weak performances! That is a deliberately harsh criticism, as they both are superbly watchable and extremely appropriate and honest to the spirit of their characters.
This is where the script must be accussed for giving them, at times, moments of such sheer absurdity and tedium to portray on the screen that it is a wonder they did not fall asleep while performing them!
The Painted Veil boasts some truly awe-inspiring cinematography
Both Norton and Watts have proved conclusively in the past (and still continue to do so) that they are more than capable as performers! However, in The Painted Veil, moments that should set the screen ablaze pass by as mere blips against a timid backdrop of reservations and limitations.
It can only be called a tragic waste of talent on all fronts.
However, there is worse yet to come.
Set in provincial China for the most part, The Painted Veil must unquestionably count as the greatest cinematographic achievement of the past twenty years. Rarely has such magnificent scenery been put on the screen to such effect!
The rare, incredibly refined and carefully captured imagery presented is enough to make the film an instant classic, and it is a crying shame that this astonishing and meticulously presented background was lost to the world due to the poor quality of what was going on in the foreground!
It is difficult to review The Painted Veil without constructing an epic on just how it could have been done better. Suffice it to say, it could have been done better. Much better. It is a true tragedy that it was not. We have lost a rare treasure.
Thanks must go to Naomia Watts and Edward Norton, who produced this magnificent film, along with a condemning and disgusted reproach to all the cast and crew simultaneously. They are responsible for turning a masterpiece that should have swept the Oscars and the world into a straight-to-DVD release!
You should have tried harder. That's all I can say.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I skipped this one because of all the negativity I had heard about its squandered effort. Your post reinforces that.
Frightening that after the lacklustre response to The Illusionist and Painted Veil Ed Norton is now playing the Hulk.