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Reviews Counted:140
Fresh:103
Rotten:37
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Visually, The Painted Veil has all the trappings of a stuffy period drama, but Norton's and Watts's deft portrayals of imperfect, complicated characters give the film a modern-day spark.
Theatrical Release:Dec 20, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $7,932,205
Synopsis: 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... [More]
Starring: Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Diana Rigg
Director: John Curran
Redemption comes far too late in The Painted Veil, an aloof and disappointing adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1920s novel that features one of the more unlikable, self-involved main characters in recent memory.
The film, alas, never scales their acting heights, plodding along in a staid fashion and tamping down the strong emotions that reside below its surface. This should have been a much more powerful movie.
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The production values are characteristically sumptuous, William Daniels' photography is lustrous, and Boleslawski directs with suitable flair.
An exquisitely drawn character piece.
Wonderful scenery, great performances and a superb story.
The only good reason to watch the first half of The Painted Veil is to prepare for the second half, in which a pair of note-perfect performers are finally given more than one note to play.
Its strength lies in its patience -- and its slow, melting sorrow that hints at atonement.
Norton and Schreiber seem too American to be English colonials, but Watts navigates a challenging transformation (in a role first played by Greta Garbo in 1934), and there are sturdy performances by Anthony Wong, Toby Jones, and Diana Rigg.
Maugham ... still translates to the screen perfectly.... Watts, Norton, and Toby Jones are fully convincing.
Handsomely crafted, with meticulous performances, yet it plays out drily and in monotone.
John Curran controls the redemptive spirit of Maugham's book with merciful restraint, and gets excellent performances all round.
[Director] Curran has crafted a film that accomplishes so much. It not only draws us into this personal drama between his two principal actors, but also sets it all against a vibrant background of an ancient civilization struggling to become modern.
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A thoroughly grown-up movie that compellingly thinks its way through the toughest matters of the heart.
Locates deep and subtle truths about the manner in which infidelity and misunderstandings can breed self-disgust in the (more) aggrieved party.
Why, ultimately, leave 1920s England to see a tragic romance between two Brits? Part this veil, and the atmosphere dissolves into a smokescreen, the backdrop revealed as a chasm between cultures.
It's an actor's love fest, with Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, and Liev Schreiber snatching every last drop of ennui and tight-fisted emotion they can.
It's lacking all subtlety.
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