"The Painted Veil" (2006) - Movie Review

There is a film named “Mouna Raagam” (1986) meaning “Silent symphony” (source: www.wikipedia.org) directed by Maniratnam. The movie is in my native language Tamil and is considered to be one of the best movies of the director. It is a story of a woman who marries some one against her will. She suffers from coming out of her past love while her husband is portrayed as the most understandable and composed man. “The Painted Veil” directed by John Curran is based on the novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham. These two movies run very similar to each other. I am not sure whether the same novel inspired Maniratnam. In my very humble opinion though, Maniratnam is extremely versatile in stylistic presentation but graces the grass rather digging deep. While it is no doubt that “Mouna Raagam” is a wonderful movie, this film takes some time to dig deep in to the source of the relationship problems than that.

It is tough to understand the real Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton), a bacteriologist who hides behind the “veil”. He is the man of very few words. And uses those words quite frankly and vehemently as needed. He seems shy but is far from it when the situation demands. He does not hesitate to ask Kitty (Naomi Watts) to marry her the next day he meets her. I guess those days are marked with instant attraction as authentication of one’s love and I am speaking 1920s. Kitty believes it is not the world wherein a woman marries any one without any feelings for him. Kitty falls for against her own philosophy. And she rides over it to move away from her mother. Without any love for Walter she travels with him to China. Their strains and tensions in their relationship with the back drop of Cholera in a remote village of China forms the remaining part of the movie.

It is no surprise except in couple of sequences about what to happen next. But there lies a nice and clean way of bringing those to screen. The spectacular nature of China interiors independently and abundantly supplies the flavour of Oriental theme. This film definitely is on the insight on relation ships and the struggles. While in “Mouna Raagam”, the character of husband is shown with no form of mistake from his side. In fact it is quite amazing that there is not much of explanation given from his side on justifying his actions. It is an instinct of him to accept the proposal. He did not think the other side of it even after the refusal from the woman. Here it is dealt properly with respect to Dr. Walter. In fact at every instance of it, there seems to be a justification of his actions and acceptance of his mistakes. He does not bother about digging it deep and spoiling it. He works to arrive on a solution. But still he is a human being. He has the anger and the betrayal wounding him constantly.

While on the other side of this relationship is Kitty. She is unsure of herself. Being in the comforts of her dad, it is all different in China. She has been used to life of novelty and parties. She expects the same from Walter. Her idea of man is her father. She believes that a man should provide those things, even without love. Her definition of love is mixed with attraction and passion over emotions. She falls for it. She realizes the consequences of it. But it is too late and is too ugly. Yet to have a man like Walter, she is given a chance or may be it is his way of punishment. She manages to explore it by pressure. She takes that extra step to reach for it.

China as the back drop during the British rule over it, there are very minor yet solid discussion of those. The supporting roles form a core substance since they are the driving factors in the change of personalities and character of the main elements in the movie. Toby Jones as Waddington, Diana Rigg as Mother Superior and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang provide those admirably along with some splendid support from the original back ground scores of Alexandre Displat. Norton has always a way of himself in giving the character its originality. He calculates his performance and does not over do it. While there have been the aggression and emotional characters of him in “American History – X” and “25th Hour”, in the recent times his choice of role is soft and subtle. He did a calm and charming magician in “The Illusionist” and now this. He brings the magnetism and the stand necessary for the role. As his counterpart, Naomi Watts has more challenge. Because the character of her spoiled and confused lady turning into a responsible and loving wife is not easy. Their working in the screen is exemplary in the scenes wherein they confront and accept their mistakes.

All said this is not a remarkable and astonishing movie. This is a very ordinary and well known story line of all. It does bring some surprises but it is plain and simple. But simplicity is beautiful in its own way. It has the power of encompassing the genre all across still carrying the same intensity and art in it. This excels in those territories. There are some movies which need to be complex and riddled. There is fun in solving the puzzle. There are some movies which are adorably sweet and at the same time tragic. “The Painted Veil” falls in the latter and I liked it.