The Painted Veil (7 out of 10) and other stuff

First, the other stuff. We have Oscar Nominations just released, and Sundance Film Festival is currently going on (actually close to over with) in Park City, Utah. I am so happy Dreamgirls did not get nominated for best film, maybe the Academy is getting over their love affair with musicals. I am going to see Letters from Iwo Jima soon, and after that, I will have seen four of the five best picture nominees. I'm not going to see The Queen because I can fall asleep on my own, don't need a sedative. After I see LFIJ, I can better determine who I think should win, but as of right now I'm pulling for Departed, and wouldn't mind seeing Babel win, but Little Miss Sunshine, while a fun movie, is nowhere near an Academy Award worthy film. And Abigail Breslin one of the top five female performances of the year? Not at all. I mean, I liked the movie, it deserves its screenplay nomination and Alan Arkin deserves his nomination, but come on.

Pan's Labyrinth got six nominations, so that's amazing, and I'll be rooting for Children of Men to win cinematography and film editing.

For anyone that saw Click, maybe you can explain to me how it got nominated for Best Makeup, because I really need to know.

I thought Leo DiCaprio should've been nominated for Departed instead of Blood Diamond and that Jack Nicholson should've been nominated over Mark Wahlberg for Departed.

Forrest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, and Jennifer Hudson are all pretty much locks to win from what I've read.

I haven't seen any of the docs except for Jesus Camp, so I will root for that one because I loved it.

Otherwise, with the exception of Ellen Degeneres hosting, it should be fun, I love the Oscars, it's on February 25th at 8 pm, on ABC I believe but don't hold me to that.

So now for my Painted Veil review.

The Painted Veil stars Edward Norton as a doctor working in China, and Naomi Watts as his wife. The two marry early in the film, but Watts does it not out of love, but only to get away from her awful parents. It isn't long before Watts is being an adultress, and Norton finds out. He tells her to either go to a cholera outbreak in a small village, or be divorced which would be both embarassing and social-life ending for Watts. So she chooses the former and off they go to fall back in love.

This movie could easily have suffered from being standard fare, but it is saved by the performances of Norton and Watts. Norton is very formal, but shows a lot of emotion for playing the stiff doctor, and Watts is wonderful. The movie often looks as if it's going to go off the tracks and become mired in cliche, but it narrowly avoids this. Frequently there are moments when the two begin falling back in love that I've seen so often before and are so sappy, like Watts is playing the piano for some Chinese children and Norton walks in and suddenly this is an excuse to love her again. I feared this was going to continue, but it never becomes overwhelming.

The film is also helped by being beautifully photographed. The village is nestled in a misty valley, and the landscape is truly something to behold. The overarching plot itself. of the cholera epidemic, is also pretty interesting, if a little watered down.

All in all, while at times a bit banal and ordinary, the movie does a good job becoming it's own piece due to the setting, mood, and performances of the leads.