A Grandly Romantic Valentine Post

A strained-looking Caucasian couple trudge through rolling vistas in China, carried by grunting Chinese, and you can feel the sweltering heat. As they travel, their story up to this point is told in flashbacks - a marriage of convenience, a betrayal, and an ultimatum (and rather cruel revenge). Thus The Painted Veil begins, with the couple hating each others' guts, and slowly works its way towards their eventual reconciliation, and even love.

There's a very classic feel to the film, in the grand Merchant-Ivory tradition, and everything feels very smooth and measured. It takes its time to build character, but is still well-paced enough that you never feel it's slow. And what characters it builds! The couple, played by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, barely have anything to say to each other at first, and most of their exchanges are cruel and cutting.

Yet this is not a film of dialogue, but rather built on non-verbal communication - looks, glances and gestures. As Watts slowly discovers how hard her husband works to help the cholera-stricken population, her heart warms to him at last, and she finds it in her selfish, spoilt self to aid the efforts as well. On Norton's part, he gradually rediscovers love and respect for his wife, and the beautiful thing is that not a word is spoken by him. He just simply changes in front of our eyes, and we can see it. It was a nice surprise to see Anthony Wong as well, and find out that his spoken English is actually really decent.

The plot is nothing to shout home about, but this is purely an actors' vehicle, and what a vehicle it is. Norton and Watts believe so completely in their characters and imbibe them with such fierce conviction and love that it's hard not to get caught up in everything. This is a grandly romantic film in the best sense of the phrase, and it's all due to their performances. Lovely.