Norton and Watts lift 'Veil'

In The Painted Veil, Edward Norton plays Walter Fane - an Englishman of the 1920s, a doctor, a cuckold - with a terseness that is terrifying.

Married out of his league to Kitty, a pretty Londoner of a higher social order, but of no particular purpose in life, Walter uses the discovery of her infidelity to exact a twisted form of vengeance.

That is, to throw Kitty (a graceful and amazing Naomi Watts) into the midst of a cholera epidemic.

Early in this understated but roiling melodrama, adapted from the Somerset Maugham novel in illuminating strokes by screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) and director John Curran (We Don't Live Here Anymore), newlyweds Walter and Kitty move from London to Shanghai. He's a young and earnest bacteriologist, gazing into microscopes, and she, a bacteriologist's wife, idle and adrift, begins gazing into the eyes of a smooth-talking British vice consul (Liev Schreiber).

Soon Kitty and this man, Charlie Townsend, are sneaking off to bed together. And not long thereafter, Walter, who is neither as oblivious nor as foolish as people make out, discovers them.

In a moment of stark confrontation that seems terribly un-British for its emotional frankness, and for its transparent cruelty, it is decided that Walter and Kitty will move to a remote village in central China. Walter has accepted a post in this rugged outback, where he will do research to try to stem the decimating disease. And so Kitty, chastened and humiliated, accompanies him, in what seems an act of fatal resignation - of suicide, even. Bodies are dropping left and right, and no one knows what to do.

Beautifully photographed, with costumes and locales that match the best of the Merchant-Ivory imprimatur, The Painted Veil is a story about forgiveness, and one man's struggle to find it in his soul. Set against the tumult of 1920s China, where the colonials went from being welcome guests to suspect intruders, the film hinges on Norton's and Watt's performances, and both are at the top of their game.

Tall, thin and tight as a knot, Norton gives Walter a gloomy rage that is slow-burning and strong. Watts conveys her character's flightiness and profound helplessness, and then her awakening - her self-discovery - in the hellish isolation of a town strewn with cadavers. She's great.

Schreiber is an odd choice for the dashing and duplicitous consulate officer, and neither his accent nor his manner seems exactly right. But in a way, that makes the folly of Kitty's relationship - and its aftermath - even more devastating. The British actor Toby Jones, who did a dead-on impersonation of Truman Capote in the little-seen (but very much worth seeing) Infamous, has the role of another emissary of the crown, a deputy commissioner who has taken a Chinese mistress, and taken a liking to opium. Coolly matter-of-fact and surprisingly compassionate, Jones' Waddington is one of those wise, worldly characters who populated exotic Hollywood tales of the '40s and '50s - someone played by Claude Rains or Edmund Gwenn (who appeared in another great Maugham adaptation, 1946's Of Human Bondage).

The Painted Veil is rich with history and heartbreak. It's stirring stuff.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/stevenrea.

The Painted Veil *** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Sara Colleton, Jean-Francois Fonlupt, Bob Yari, Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, directed by John Curran, written by Ron Nyswaner, photography by Stuart Dryburgh, music by Alexandre Desplat, distributed by Warner Independent Pictures.

Running time: 2 hours, 5 mins.

Walter Fane. . . Edward Norton

Kitty Fane. . . Naomi Watts

Charles Townsend. . . Liev Schreiber

Waddington. . . Toby Jones

Parent's guide: PG-13 (violence, sex, adult themes)

Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse (wider release Jan. 5)