The Painted Veil (2006), one of the best movies of the year, is a wonderfully original and relevant story. It’s original because it’s a romance in reverse. When Walter (Edward Norton) and Kitty’s (Naomi Watts) new marriage sinks from neutral to adultery, we expect the whole thing to end dismally, but the husband and wife slowly mature and slowly grow closer together. The Painted Veil is relevant for the hope it touches in us that we, too, might earn such redemption.
When Dr. Walter Fane is home in England from China, he’s attracted to Kitty principally because she is pretty. Although she does not return his infatuation, she agrees to marry him because of subtle pressures from her family. She is shallow, easily bored, and used to luxury; her strengths are probably parties and social tennis. He is repressed, awkward, and unable to chit chat; his strengths are probably scientific research and concrete problem solving. They have almost nothing in common, their marriage does not magically blossom, and she has an affair with the British Vice Consul (Liev Schreiber) in Shanghai. Although she has the affair, the movie makes clear that they are both at fault. While arguing, he says (all quotations approximate), “I knew you were shallow, but I’d hoped for something more,” (to which she could have replied, “I knew you were an introvert buried in his work but I’d hoped for something more).” Actually, she replies, “If a man doesn’t have what it takes for a woman to fall in love with him, it’s not her fault,” (to which he could have responded, “If a woman doesn’t have what it takes to change a husband’s infatuation to real love, it’s not his fault”).
When Walter announces that they are trekking into the interior of China to help in one of the areas hardest hit by the cholera epidemic, the complexity of his motivation exemplifies the depth of the characters in this story. Foremost, he wants to punish his wife by exposing her to hardship and disease. But maybe, as he claims later in the story, his primary motivation is to punish himself. He despises himself for making such a mess of his marriage. He also has a humanitarian interest in helping where he is really needed, and he has a scientific interest as a physician and bacteriologist. Both these motivations become prominent when he starts working in the remote village.
Things are at an icy stand-off in the marriage, and there is no escape. She then starts to hear great things about her husband. For example, the kids at the Roman Catholic orphanage love him. He starts to see her becoming useful and doing good work—she is playing piano and leading games with the children at the orphanage. As the ice thaws, Walter sums up: “We were wrong to expect in each other what was not there.” When they visit the local British Deputy Commissioner (Toby Jones) and his gamine Mongolian lover (fashion model Yu Lin), the common-law wife says the attraction to her husband is that “he’s a good man,” and Kitty wonders, “What woman ever loved a man for his virtue?” She’s open to new ideas, she realizes this is a good one, and she embraces it. Their love grows.
Excellent music, fine cinematography, and great acting convey the story. The artistic care taken with this story manifests itself yet again in the final scene. Kitty and her 5-year-old son are shopping in London. Unlike an earlier scene, Kitty decides that buying cut flowers is not frivolous. They then bump into the Vice Consul, and as the camera cuts back and forth between the son and the lover of five years ago, you try to figure out if he was the father. You can’t, which is the point--it doesn’t matter. In direct contrast to an earlier scene where Kitty was instantly enamoured with his ambassadorial charms, she now finds him sorely lacking compared to the memory of Walter.
By JIMBELL and Wonga