Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Painted Veil


Last night my wife and I finished watching a movie that I would like to commend to you all. It's called The Painted Veil and stars Ed Norton and Naomi Watts. Here is the movie description:
The third film version of Somerset Maughm’s 1925 novel--directed by John Curran--is ripe with stunning Chinese locales and a smart turn from Naomi Watts as Kitty Fane, the aging English socialite who must put herself in strange and turbulent surroundings before she finds her true self. A complex and beautiful international production, this adaptation benefits greatly from the lack of restrictions that inhibited its previous incarnations in 1925 (with Greta Garbo) and in 1957 (as THE SEVENTH SIN).

After pressure from her wealthy parents to settle down, Kitty marries mild-mannered bacteriologist Walter (Edward Norton), despite her lack of love for him. Shortly after their vows, he takes her to Shanghai, where she immediately has an affair with Charles Townsend (Liev Shrieber), an English Vice Consul. Walter becomes aware of Kitty’s indiscretion and promptly whisks her away to the mountain village of Mei-tan-fu, where they befriend another English expat, the secretly decadent Deputy Commissioner Waddington (Toby Jones, in an extremely likable performance). Walter begins working to hold an encroaching cholera epidemic at bay---leaving Kitty to ponder her role in the situation as death looms over the village like a specter
You can read some reviews here.

I found this movie to have a very redemptive message that Christians should support when seen coming from secular culture.

2 comments:

JR said...

Hey Z! Thanks for recommending this film! I loved it the first time I saw it and promptly watched it again. Couldn't really explain why, but it's good and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

jer said...

Zach-
My wife and I watched this movie a few months ago. I was not really that excited about the movie, but Valerie wanted to see it.

Well by the end of it, my mind had completely changed. Very very good movie.