Synopsis:

The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple, Walter (Edward Norton), a middle class doctor and Kitty (Naomi Watts), an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.

Brian's Rating: B+ : Continuing our inadvertent streak of Ed Norton movies, we watched "The Painted Veil" tonight.  The Freak is probably going to be floored that I watched another romantic film.

The movie is an odd sort of love story set in 1920's rural China.  A doctor, played by Ed Norton volunteers to take charge of a Cholera outbreak in a village somewhere inland on the Yellow River.  The twist is that he does it as a punishment for his wife. 

He married her briskly while on a short stint in London.  She, not really knowing him, wanted to get away from her family, and so agreed to marry him and go to China.  Not long after she starts an affair, he catches her in the act, and then manipulates her into the middle of the village with the Cholera outbreak.

The story, up until that point is boring, but then it gets interesting to watch the dynamic between the 2 of them.

My criticisms of the film:
First, casting Americans into British roles.  I never like this.  Ed Norton is a good actor, but like his fellow cast members, the forced English accent never sounds good, especially during intense scenes where emotion of any sort is being displayed.  Secondly, the final scene is redundant.  It is apparently put in place to convey a message that was already delivered.  Finally, it took too long to get into the interesting part of the movie.

Aside from these criticisms, the movie was enjoyable.  I would recommend it.  All you Ed Norton lovers out there, go for it.
 

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