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The Painted Veil
By Stephen Farber
The Painted Veil, adapted from a W. Somerset Maugham novel that also inspired a Greta Garbo film of 1934, seems to be another British entry in the Oscar derby--except that it's made by Americans. Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) and director John Curran (We Don't Live Here Anymore) do a good job with Maugham's tale of a British couple who find their marriage tested and then revived when they travel to China to fight a cholera epidemic. The film is handsomely shot and extremely well directed by Curran, who makes an impressive leap forward from his earlier, low-budget films. The cast includes some fine British actors--Toby Jones as a drunken wastrel, Diana Rigg as a humane nun with doubts about her calling--along with two Americans and an Aussie. Edward Norton as the unforgiving husband and Liev Schreiber as a diplomat who becomes the wife's lover do solid work, but it's Australian Naomi Watts who gives the film its heart. She turns in one of the year's best performances as a shallow woman who is transformed by adversity. The story of a couple who learn to love each other only after they are married has been told before, but rarely with such understated poignancy.
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