Wendy and I went to see the movie The Painted Veil over the weekend.  We knew very little about the movie going in except the by-line:

A love story set in the 1920s about a young English couple–a conservative doctor and a restless society girl–who marry hastily, relocate to Hong Kong. There they betray each other easily, and find an unexpected chance at redemption and happiness while on a deadly journey into the heart of ancient China.

We figured it was going to be, more or less, a standard romantic drama but were both a little unsure of what “a deadly journey into the heart of ancient China” meant.

So I’d like to recommend the movie without giving away any more than I have to because I think it made the movie that much better.  But I will say this:

If I had a “business card” that applied to my entire life my title would be “God fearing Husband, Engineer, Sailor, Bears fan and student of the Human Condition”.  Just about every movie that I’ve truly loved has said something meaningful about the human condition.

And this movie delivers on that.

One of my biggest peives is movies that are given the opportunity to deliver on a meaningful point about the human condition that instead pass up the chance and pull their punches so that the movie can have a “Hollywood ending”.  As I told Wendy as we stood up after the credits, “That movie DID NOT pull any punches.”

In fact, just when you thought it was going to let you off the hook, it went for the kill.

OK, I know that was beating around the bush.  But if you are interested in movies that delve into the heart of human nature, trust me, you’re going to love this movie.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 1:11 am and is filed under Movies/TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.