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Mathew Scott

The Painted Veil

Starring: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Live Schreiber, Anthony Wong

Director: John J. Curran

The film: You'll know going in what The Painted Veil is all about. The source is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, the settings exotic and the lead actress - Naomi Watts - stares from the cover with a look than can only be described in one word: searching.

That's her husband there too, by the way, played by Edward Norton and clinging to her while she ponders - we can imagine - what  she has got herself into.

The Painted Veil is a very British story about a loveless - on one side anyway - marriage of convenience that finds itself in a foreign land (China circa 1925).

While the narrative itself never throws up too many surprises, what makes the final production utterly engaging is the performances from, and the chemistry between, the two leads and some solid support from the likes of Hong Kong's own Anthony Wong Chau-sang (who does his best with a limited role).

Watts is given a little more to play with than a giant ape's hand this time and she is all-over the lost soul, questioning how she finds herself with a man she doesn't know.

Her eye wanders - and you end up hating her for her stupidity - but it says much of the depth of her performance that you also understand her plight.

When her dirty linen is aired, her husband whisks her off to a  remote village where cholera has taken hold. And it is there that she learns more about his love - and more about life itself.

Norton is never less than watchable and his stoic turn bristles with restrained passion throughout.

Director John J. Curran - who up to this point has done little more than 2004's overwrought relationship drama We Don't Live Here Any More - provides a deft hand, too, allowing the story to unfold slowly, while making the most of the often spectacular rural Chinese countryside.

Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh was the man behind the lenses in New Zealand-born director Jane Campion's The Piano (1993) and we are given a similar dreamscape here, broken occasionally by the savage reality of the foreign world our lead characters find themselves surrounded by.

While there'll be no prizes handed out for guessing where the whole affair ends, Curran allows for just the right blend of emotion and action to keep you entertained.

The extras: Remarkably, the first version to hit shops comes with a theatrical trailer and nothing more. A little more history - from Shanghai and the events around which the source material was based - might have been nice.

The verdict: A richly layered piece of drama that's subtly handled by its director and lifted well above the ordinary by its stars.



The Painted Veil