Letting Love Blossom In the Face of Disease
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

“The Painted Veil” is a story of betrayal, vengeance, and cholera in 1920s China, but it is most eloquent in its portrayal of a marriage in distress. The film, which has been a pet project of Edward Norton’s for almost six years, opens less than a week after Steven Soderbergh’s retropic “The Good German,” and achieves what that film strove so desperately to attain — the lost romance of Hollywood’s golden era.
Depicting a story of love and intrigue amid the peace talks following World War II, “The Good German” was ultimately trapped in Mr. Soderbergh’s narrow dedication to the noir aesthetic. But director John Curran, working here within the mores of 1920s England and China, uses all the tools of modern filmmaking to create a period drama that resonates today.
Set in London, Shanghai, and rural China, the film follows the travails of one mismatched couple and traces how far they must go to match their expectations with their abilities. Based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel of the same name, this adaptation takes liberties that are similar to those taken in the 1934 Greta Garbo film interpretation. But while the original film may have benefited from a hypnotic Garbo performance, it was hindered by weak supporting characters, flimsy sound stages, and the polished racism that plagued much of mid-20th century Hollywood.
This “Painted Veil” takes a more realist approach, depicting some of the political landscape of 1920s China, the physical affects of cholera, and a native distrust of Westerners that may have been warranted but contributed to the spread of deadly infections.
The film finds its heart among all the bedlam. Naomi Watts does not achieve much of Garbo’s allure here, but she brings a touching fragility to the role, and her casting is more fitting to the story. Maugham created Kitty Fane as an overprivileged British socialite who marries bacteriologist Walter Fane when her increasing age begins to crimp her social status, and though it is not immediately clear why Mr. Norton’s doctor would be so smitten with her, she captures the air of a charming but bored debutante.
After the couple moves to Shanghai and Walter realizes that Kitty has cuckolded him with the suave councilman Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber), he volunteers to help fight the cholera epidemic in the remote village of Mei-tanfu and forces his wife to come along.
Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner has shifted this story of vengeance into an enduring depiction of love blossoming from humility and growth. The choice to enter the rural town, which may lead both to their deaths, ultimately challenges Kitty and Walter to shed their pride and look at each other anew. In Maugham’s book, Kitty begins to appreciate her husband despite his foibles, but here she finds a love for him precisely for those traits that led him to failure in the superficial parlor games of society life.
Along the way, the film cultivates an affair with the Chinese countryside. Though the conditions in rural China are initially brutal, the organic beauty surrounding the couple begins to make a case for itself. And fittingly, Mr. Curran has roused surprising performances from the entirety of his talented cast.
The depths of most of the characters are not immediately revealed, but Chinese actor Anthony Wong finds the perfect balance of responsibility and skepticism toward foreigners as Colonel Yu, the Chinese military liaison between the English and the native populace. Toby Jones delivers a typically adept performance as the British Deputy Commissioner of the province, and Chinese model Yu Lin turns in a brief, serpentine performance as his Manchu lover.
But it is the inspired casting of the three leads that makes this story come to life. Mr. Norton has waited years for Ms. Watts to star in this picture with him, and it is clear to see why. Though their two characters marry early on, their love develops during the course of the film. It is notable that they manage the early stilted affections of this mismatched pair without losing the attention of the audience.
This is also in contrast to the palpable chemistry between Ms. Watts and her off-screen paramour, Mr. Schreiber. The potent magnetism that Kitty and Townsend share explains why Kitty might have confused their dalliances for love.
But as Walter’s innate goodness becomes more and more useful and Kitty’s surroundings force her to mature, the appeals of Mr. Schreiber’s character prove tawdry. As Walter sweats in the noonday sun, trying to improve the lives of those around him, his dedications become not only admirable, but seductive. Mr. Norton’s appealing doctor is an unusual cinematic presence, one that displaces the notion of the plodding sap who loses his love interest to the more charming, debonair suitor.
The depiction of this complicated romance is a cinematic achievement.”The Painted Veil” may at times threaten to fall into an abyss of sentimentality, and it has moments that seem mere transitions to propel the plot, but it manages a charming historic portrait without insulting the audience’s intelligence.
And while the idea of remaining in a loveless marriage (or forcing your spouse into a teeming hotbed of communicable disease) may conflict with modern sensibilities, it’s the constraints of the society and their refusal to separate that give this lost couple the space to appreciate each other’s strengths.