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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Painted Veil, The
EMAILPRINTWarner Independent Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 79 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Romance
Written by:
Ron Nyswaner
W. Somerset Maugham (novel)
Directed by: John Curran
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 20, 2006
DVD: May 8, 2007
Running Time: 125 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Language(s): Mandarin / English
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some mature sexual situations, partial nudity, disturbing images and brief drug content
Starring Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Sally Hawkins, Toby Jones, and Diana Rigg
Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham and set against the visually stunning backdrop of China during one of its most dramatic periods of upheaval, The Painted Veil tells a unique love story of an estranged husband and wife who find redemption and unexpected grace in a very unlikely place. (Warner Independent Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Praise We Don't Live Here Anymore
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Curran, his actors and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner have made an old-fashioned melodramatic epic that, as steeped as it is in the language and tradition of old movies, is never less than thrummingly alive.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman
Acted with such venomous restraint that it hurts to watch.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The Painted Veil is rich with history and heartbreak. It's stirring stuff.
Read Full Review >Premiere Ethan Alter
If The Painted Veil ultimately lacks some of the novelty and ambition of the year's best pictures, it still ranks as one of 2006's quiet gems.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The Painted Veil is a welcome addition to the slate of holiday movies, particularly for those drawn to intriguing tales of multi-dimensional characters in exotic settings.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
No one has caught the pride, remorse and pain of an unloved and possibly unlovable husband better than Edward Norton in The Painted Veil.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The always surprising Watts creates a woman at once contemporary and retro. And Norton, as a producer as well as star, concedes enough space for Schreiber and the effortlessly fascinating Jones to earn their own spotlights.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
The movie has a lush mysteriousness that represents a bygone, almost antique style of romanticism. It bears almost no resemblance to the current crop of mostly rat-a-tat movies. To view it is to enter a time warp, and there is some pleasure in stepping back into the languor.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Norton isn't the first guy who comes to mind when you think ''period piece,'' but he's starred in two such films this year (in addition to The Painted Veil, he stars in "The Illusionist"), and he is terrific in both.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
John Curran's pretty melodrama rubs off a few of the barbed edges from W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel about love and infidelity in a time of cholera, but no matter: the centerpiece is Naomi Watts' outstanding portrayal of an adulteress redeemed.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The Painted Veil has the power and intimacy of a timeless love story. By all means, let it sweep you away.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A lot takes place during The Painted Veil's two-hour running length, but most of what happens occurs within the hearts and minds of the leads.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
The Painted Veil may begin too slowly, but it also ends too soon.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The Chinese locations ache with beauty. And when Watts and Norton focus, intently, on Maugham's often dazzlingly vindictive characters, The Painted Veil really does feel like a story worth filming a third time.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's by far the most faithful of the three versions, and beyond this integrity it also offers an ensemble of graceful performances and an epic evocation of 1920s China -- though, like its predecessors, it's far from a perfect crystallization of the novel.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
This handsome period drama is a big step up for director John Curran (We Don't Live Here Anymore), who shot in China with predominantly Chinese crews. Norton and Schreiber seem too American to be English colonials, but Watts navigates a challenging transformation (in a role first played by Greta Garbo in 1934.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Bolstered by a strong ensemble-- "Infamous's" Toby Jones as a deputy commissioner gone native, and a wonderfully wrinkled Diana Rigg as a Mother Superior, speaking up for disillusioned decency--and by the ecstatic cinematography of Stuart Dryburgh, The Painted Veil lifts Maugham's story clear of its prissy, attenuated spirituality, and into genuine passion.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The film is unusual in that it is a co-production with the Chinese. Whatever difficulties this imposed on the Western filmmakers, the reward is a period film that feel authentic to its time and place.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Whether through craft or constitution, Mr. Norton invests Walter with a petty cruelty that makes his character’s emotional thaw and Kitty’s predicament all the more poignant.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
The movie makes for a good old-fashioned wide-screen wallow. Norton isn’t remotely credible, but Toby Jones is dandy as a sleazeball with a core of decency, and Watts is so open, so soulfully petulant, so transcendentally pretty, that even Maugham might reconsider the pleasures of the flesh.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Despite the rich, atmospheric textures, Norton's artificiality, Watts' unlikability, and a plot comprised of one melodramatic wrinkle after another all contrive to frustrate our empathy.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
While the film remains intelligent and transporting, a gorgeous travelogue into another time and place, it nonetheless feels like it's going through the motions, applying period gloss to a story that needs to be more tactile.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
Despite a fierce lead performance by Naomi Watts, The Painted Veil is a quaintly bloodless, picture-postcard adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 China-set novel - more Merchant Ivory than David Lean.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The whole affair seems curiously bloodless and often more torpid than torrid.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Curran is a talented director, especially where his actors are concerned. His previous movie, "We Don't Live Here Anymore," an adaptation of two Andre Dubus stories, was another literary adultery drama featuring Watts. The Painted Veil doesn't achieve the fire that characterized that film.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The result is a beautiful painting come to stately, intermittent life.
Read Full Review >Empire Angie Errigo
Handsomely crafted, with meticulous performances, yet it plays out drily and in monotone.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
The Painted Veil has all the elements in place to be a great epic, but it fails to connect, to paraphrase Maugham's contemporary E.M. Forster, the prose with the passion. It's impeccable, but leaves you cold.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Intelligent scripting, solid thesping and eye-catching location shooting aren't enough to make a compelling modern film of The Painted Veil.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Terrific actors give glum performances.
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
The result is a movie that feels weirdly disconnected from reality.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Matthew Sorrento
Overall, Norton's effect and Watts' able portrayal are not enough to move the misogyny of the narrative.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 79 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Carlos R gave it a9:
Beautiful photography, astounding music and very good acting from Norton and Naomi.
wendy s gave it a10:
Incredible movie. One of the best I've seen. Beautiful imagery and moving stoy. I loved this one.
Ian B gave it a10:
This really is a superb film, meant for an adult, educated audience, lacking car chases and kung foo fights. Great acting by leading roles and a gentle but powerful story development. It's nice to know there are still movies like this being made in spite of the needs of our age for instant amusement.
Kathy l gave it an8:
I thought this movie was very, very good. The relationship between the two characters was believable and moving. Their passions and emotions were real. The acting was superb and the cinematography was excellent. I can't understand why this movie did not do better--it is a gem.
Jehanzeb gave it a10:
Very touching story with good pace. beautiful sceneries, lush photography..excellent acting. The sceneries and emotions were given due time and regard. Slowliness was necessary to maintain quality. Must see phenomenon.
Susan S. gave it a9:
Captivating, a well acted period piece that was engaging enough to require further reading and research after the movie credits ran. Completely engrossing...the characters were multi-dimensional and well layered. The depths of each character kept me interested in their demons and wanting to know more. Wonderful film.
Rat C. gave it a10:
Great Movie! Deep, thoughtful, inspiring, heartbrokenly romantic, another excellent performance from ED and NW! 100% positive.
