The Painted Veil (2006)

The Painted Veil - Starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446755/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Painted_Veil_(2006_film)

Kitty Garstin (Watts) is a pretty, shallow young woman from a well-to-do London family, under pressure from her parents to find a husband. Soon after she meets him at a party, she marries Dr. Walter Fane (Norton), an earnest, socially awkward doctor on leave from China, even though she does not love him. The Fanes move to Shanghai, where Dr. Fane is stationed in a government lab studying infectious diseases. Soon bored, Kitty meets Charles Townsend (Schreiber), a married British diplomat who is a serial womanizer, and has an affair with him. When Walter finds out, he gives her an ultimatum: come with him to the Chinese interior to assist with a cholera epidemic relief effort for which he has volunteered, or face a divorce on the grounds of her adultery.

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I'll admit I've never seen the original 'Veil nor have I read the novel which both movies are based on, so I watched this movie with almost no expectations either way. Just a clear mind ready to absorb whatever came on the screen.

Boy am I glad I rented this one. It is a really good period drama. I am definitely a fan of period dramas and even well done romantic dramas and this one does not disappoint. Both of the stars deliver fantastic performances. The characters have a lot of depth and the relationships seem so realistic. The directing, cinematography, and musical score are top notch. It just works.

It isn't the happiest movie in the world but it isn't supposed to be. It is an emotionally satisfying, realistically portrayed, romantic period drama.

I give this one :4.5stars: out of :5stars:.