Love hurts...

Fairy tales about love at first sight, falling in love, and living happily ever after make for a good romantic story, but never tell the whole truth. We all have our faults which are well hidden in the passions of budding love and in our hopes of who the other is and what they'll become. To most of us, genuine romance is only found after enduring a lot of pain, forgiveness, and acceptance. The Painted Veil, a new film based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, develops this less than idealistic view of love using the relationship of Walter and Kitty Fane as they struggle to find love and forgiveness in a marriage that probably shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Walter (Edward Norton), an English bacteriologist posted in Shanghai who is used to understanding things from observation rather than interaction, falls in love with Kitty from afar during a trip back to London. Kitty, being immature and naive, accepts a hasty marriage proposal to escape from her mother and societal pressure of being a single woman during that time, and is subsequently whisked away to Shanghai. Walter's inability to show his affections combined with his ignorance of what real intimacy is leads Kitty to embark in an affair that she mistakes for true love. Instead, she is heartbroken, and is forced to join Walter in rural China where he volunteers to help fight a deadly epidemic of cholera. It is in this backdrop of poverty, death, and disease where the heart of this film takes place, as Walter and Kitty mature and grow to genuinely love each other. We also learn a bit about China in the 1920's along the way, and get some glimpses into the conflicts between the rural peasant class and ruling government that seem to still exist today.

Naomi Watts puts in a solid performance that surprisingly hasn't generated much media buzz so far. Even more remarkable, though, is the lack of recognition for Edward Norton who also gives a very subtle but incredibly effective performance as Walter. It's certainly not an obvious role to garner awards praise (i.e. he doesn't play someone mentally challenged or do a lot of screaming, crying, etc.), but you always seem to get a sense of the brewing dissatisfaction and resentment in him throughout the film that's wholly understandable and believable. Diana Rigg makes an appearance as a nun working in the Chinese village, who is completely unrecognizable from her former days as a Bond girl. The cinematography is also top notch, and I didn't really appreciate what a challenge it must have been to get permission to film an American-produced movie entirely in China until I left the theater.

This isn't your typical sappy "chick-flick" period piece kind of romance drama. Word is that Ed Norton struggled for years to get this picture made. Unfortunately, if the Golden Globes are any indication, this movie won't be decorated with any trophies to reward his effort. It's kind of a shame--this is a good film that many people will probably overlook because of it's lack of Oscar buzz. Don't miss out.

**** (out of *****)