Synopsis
A British medical doctor fights a cholera outbreak in a small Chinese village, while also being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.
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Cast
- Edward NortonDr. Walter Fane
- Naomi WattsKitty Fane
- Liev SchreiberCharlie Townsend
- Diana RiggMother Superior
- Toby JonesMr. Waddington
- Anthony WongColonel Yu
- Juliet HowlandDorothy Townsend
- Ian RenwickGeoffrey Denison
- Bin LiTe-Ming
- Zoe TelfordLeona
Recommendations
- 88
Premiere
If The Painted Veil ultimately lacks some of the novelty and ambition of the year's best pictures, it still ranks as one of 2006's quiet gems. - 88
USA Today
The Painted Veil is a welcome addition to the slate of holiday movies, particularly for those drawn to intriguing tales of multi-dimensional characters in exotic settings. - 75
Rolling Stone
The Painted Veil has the power and intimacy of a timeless love story. By all means, let it sweep you away. - 75
ReelViews
A lot takes place during The Painted Veil's two-hour running length, but most of what happens occurs within the hearts and minds of the leads. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
John Curran's pretty melodrama rubs off a few of the barbed edges from W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel about love and infidelity in a time of cholera, but no matter: the centerpiece is Naomi Watts' outstanding portrayal of an adulteress redeemed. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
The film is unusual in that it is a co-production with the Chinese. Whatever difficulties this imposed on the Western filmmakers, the reward is a period film that feel authentic to its time and place. - 70
Village Voice
Bolstered by a strong ensemble-- "Infamous's" Toby Jones as a deputy commissioner gone native, and a wonderfully wrinkled Diana Rigg as a Mother Superior, speaking up for disillusioned decency--and by the ecstatic cinematography of Stuart Dryburgh, The Painted Veil lifts Maugham's story clear of its prissy, attenuated spirituality, and into genuine passion. - 70
The New York Times
Whether through craft or constitution, Mr. Norton invests Walter with a petty cruelty that makes his character’s emotional thaw and Kitty’s predicament all the more poignant.
