The Painted Veil (2006)

R: Those of you who know me, know that The Onion is one of the few film review sites that I trust. I agree with much of what they say about this film -- it is gorgeous, well-acted... and a little bit off. I have three things to add/emphasize:

1. The thing that is "off" about the film is the sense of time. At one point, the lady lead says "we've been here for a month," when I would have guessed that they been in Plaguesville for a couple of days. Another cue (this time "two months") caught Kate thinking that they'd been in the town longer. I don't think this was intentional, since it's not used to particularly good effect. I'd go further and say that scuplting time is what [live-action] filmmakers do, and that this director didn't seem particularly good at it.

2. Toby Jones is awesome.

3. Ed Norton was pretty good too. This is too bad for the leading lady, Miss Whatserface, who wasn't bad, but wasn't fantastic either -- definitely less interesting than the other two principals. Since the film is done mostly from her point of view, this is problematic.

All in all, I'd say rent it. Unless, of course, you're a sucker for the Misty Mountains of China (TM), in which case you've already seen it.






K: I also thought that this movie was pretty great. The two main characters were very subtle and changed over the course of the film in a very intuitive and lovely way. Toby Jones steals the show very easily, despite being the only character who doesn't experience a change in his view of the world. I would agree that although China is breathtakingly beautiful and all, you can probably watch this on DVD--just make sure you watch it widescreen.