Restrained, venomous, romantic, The Painted Veil often plays like a wicked indie relationship movie masquerading as period drama. Based on the 1925 novel by W. Somerset Maugham, the film stars Ed Norton as a stiff bacteriologist married to bored socialite Naomi Watts.
When the newly-weds relocate to Shanghai, he buries himself in research into infectious diseases, she buries herself in Liev Schreiber’s philandering vice-consul. Quietly enraged, the cuckolded husband punishes his errant partner with a 10-day overland journey to take a position in a Yangtze village that is quite overrun with cholera. Well, if he can’t have her…
Slowly, against all odds, a surprising tenderness blooms between the warring couple, but not before circumstances contrive to separate them.
Watts and Norton, who both acted as producers here, have thrown themselves into this showcase for their not inconsiderable talents. The screenplay, penned by Philadelphia scribe Ron Nyswater, is delicate and seductive. Sadly, budgetary restraints do tell. Crowd scenes seem to feature five people jostling around a lot in big hats and even Stuart Dryburgh, Jane Campion’s regular cinematographer, just can’t fake the lavish scope normally required for a costumed weepie.
You can certainly feel the buttoned up passion here, but it never really sweeps you off your feet.