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Based on the classic novel by
Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil is a love story set
in the 1920s that tells the tale of a young English couple,
Walter, a middle class doctor and Kitty, 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.
Kitty is an upper class London
socialite closing in on an age when a proper lady must find a
husband. To remain unwed much longer would be highly
unbecoming, not to mention humiliating for her exceedingly
socially conscious mother. Bored with her privileged
lifestyle anyway and yearning for escape, Kitty accepts a
proposal of marriage from Dr. Walter Fane, a quiet, serious
bacteriologist who moves the new couple to Shanghai.
In the strange city-which is
blooming into the center of
popular
culture, political intrigue and
vice
in China-the Fanes venture out into British colonial society,
where they are introduced to English Vice Consul Charles
Townsend. While Walter dedicates himself to his work and to
his new wife, Kitty embarks on an adulterous affair with
Charlie.
After Walter learns of her
indiscretion, he accepts a job in a remote village in China
ravaged by the deadly cholera epidemic, and forces a
despondent Kitty to accompany him.
Following the Fanes arrive in the
village of Mei-tan-fu, the couple's wintry isolation
continues. Kitty befriends a neighbor, Deputy Commissioner
Waddington, and the emotional trappings of her former life
slowly fall away as she begins to confront the reality of her
surroundings. Amid the human wreckage of the cholera epidemic,
which has given both spouses new purpose, Kitty and Walter
discover forgiveness, understanding, even tenderness-and
rediscover each other.
The film stars Naomi Watts, Edward
Norton, Liev Schreiber and Toby Jones,
is written by Ron Nyswaner and
directed by John Curran. |
