The Worst Film Ever

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

While the book is fascinating. The movie is so weird. I am quite disappointed about the start of the movie, which was so abrupt. The scenes about China, so weird and not true at all.

Walter Fane decides to punish his wife, Kitty, for having married him. Marry in haste, repent at leisure, as a wise man once said. A woman, who could well have been a contemporary of Kitty Fane, once told me that Somerset Maugham had a better understanding of the differences between male and female mentality than any other writer she had ever read. Whether this had anything to do with his homosexuality I really couldn't say, but it struck me as an unusually interesting observation. The portrayal of both sides of the Fane couple in this film impressed me as exceptional. This was not only due to the writing but to the superlative performances and direction. Both parties, as well as Waddington, gave immensely nuanced turns. I knew couples exactly like this, but somehow their depiction here gave me a deeper insight into the nature of their relationship than even the reality. Astonishingly, Norton impressed as more English than the English.The setting in the China of the 1920s and '30s was also remarkably fine. Checking out this production on Wikipedia, I was taken aback by the lukewarm reception it had been given on its release by critics in America, in the New York and Los Angeles Times newspapers, and Variety. The extraordinary effort that had clearly been put into its production had apparently gone unrecognized. The reviews seem uniformly obtuse. There must be a culture and generation gap here. For Englishmen of a certain age and background the film is an achievement of pinpoint accuracy, and devastating irony. Perhaps there's something uniquely British about it, in spite of Norton being American. A deep-rooted appreciation of the emotional isolation of colonial life, its exile and sacrifices.

I watched this movie purely based on the high ratings and positive reviews it got on IMDb. I can get that people like this movie if you are into this kind of genre. But drama/romances are not my thing so to me it's just a movie I will have watched once and then forget about it. The only thing I liked about The Painted Veil were the nice nature shots. Those were breathtaking. But the story itself is just not good enough to me to entertain me for such a long period. But I get that some people will like it because the actors did a good job. You can't fault Naomi Watts and Edward Norton for anything. They are good actors, everybody can see that. To me it's just the story that is too boring, but I can't say it is a bad movie. It's just not my cup of tea.

Terrific Movie about terrific subjects: Infidelity and dealing with it is one topic. Here it is handled according to the rules of the 1920ies which don't apply to us anymore (but could be considered, just in case to prevent lawyers from getting fat over divorces). Bringing hygiene standards to uneducated masses against traditions is the other. We are facing H1N1 and Ebola and the problems still seem the same. Great performances by Naomi Watts, Edward Norton and Toby Jones (I preferred Diana Riggs mocking glimpses in The Avengers to her sweet loving glances as Mother Superior), but if you would have cut down the scenes of Dr. Fanes self- righteousness to what was really needed, you could have saved half an hour of film.