I love this movie so much

Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

To watch this film after having seen the Greta Garbo version of 1934 is a challenge indeed. They are both excellent but at the same time each other's contraries. This version is truer to Somerset Maugham, while the Garbo version is so much more efficient and dramatic. Naomi Watts and Edward Norton are bleak and almost insipid in their performances in comparison with the passions of Garbo, Herbert Marshall and George Brent. The 1934 film is also much more interesting in its rendering of the Chinese reality of those days. Compare for instance the couple's visit to the Chinese opera. In 1934 it's a phantasmagoria of festivities, while here it's just one actress miaowing.On the other hand, this version is so much more beautiful. The Chinese landscape is intoxicating in its beauty, and Alexander Desplat's music, always enchanting, casts a soft spell of sweetness over the film in a sad mood of inevitability. Edward Norton's role is a difficult one, it is never sympathetic, and Naomi Watts does not cut a very sympathetic figure either, while Greta Garbo still shines the more after 80 years. The tempo is slow, you are bound to yawn at times and maybe even fall asleep to the soft dullness, while the 1934 film keeps you wide awake all through indeed. On the other hand, this film does not abandon Somerset Maugham but walks the line all the way.

Watched this last night on Netflix. At first, was annoyed by Naomi Watt's heavy Australian accent bleeding through her British character's, along with Ed Norton's very weak accent.Once they went to China, everything changed. The scenery (filmed in Guilin, Guangxiprovince) is MAGNIFICENT. Interesting to watch the characters go fromloathing one another to a sort of reunion. Definitely worth a watch.Love the scenery, costumes, music, and melancholy lighting. Would haveliked to see more of Waddington.Jeez, I have to add more lines to my review. Most people have the attention span of a goldfish, IMDb! What else is there to say...wish I saw more from the Chinese character's points of view, so they weren't just stereotypes , i.e. Chinese Peasant #1. Would have liked to known more about the experiences of the French nuns--what gives them pleasure? How about seeing the local foods? There was a humorous scene where Dr. Fane meets up with a Chinese warlord--reminded me of the Supreme Leader of North Korea. Good movie, definitely if you can get though the dreary English scenes--where I wish more character development had occurred--you will love it. And Lieve Schreiber makes an excellent DOUCHEBAG character!

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.