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The Painted Veil

A A A Comments By STAFF Thursday, Dec 28 2006

The Painted Veil

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NOTES ON A SCANDAL
See "Predator v. Predator" (Edwards University, Irvine)

THE PAINTED VEIL
Given what an awful stiff Somerset Maugham can be, it's remarkable how many movies have been made of his uptight tales of civil servants sweating it out in British colonies (48 for the big screen alone). John Curran's fresh take on Maugham's novel The Painted Veil, from a crisp script by Philadelphia screenwriter Ron Nyswaner, is sober and delicate but downright buoyant compared to a dull 1934 adaptation starring a miscast Greta Garbo, and a 1957 remake, The Seventh Sin, that tanked on arrival. Edward Norton makes a pretty impressive stiff himself as Walter, a research doctor who, after marrying up and badly to bored socialite Kitty (a suitably brittle Naomi Watts), moves to Shanghai, where he immerses himself in the study of infectious disease, while she immerses herself in a caddish vice-consul (Liev Schreiber). Galvanized out of his insipid servility by jealous rage, Walter hauls the missus off to a cholera-ridden rural outpost, where the two gradually defrost in mutual devotion to duty. Bolstered by a strong ensemble—Infamous' Toby Jones as a deputy commissioner gone native, and a wonderfully wrinkled Diana Rigg—and by the ecstatic cinematography of Stuart Dryburgh, The Painted Veil lifts Maugham's story clear of its prissy, attenuated spirituality, and into genuine passion. (Ella Taylor) (Edwards South Coast Village, Santa Ana)

PAN'S LABYRINTH
See "Magic Touch" (AMC at the Block, Orange; Edwards University, Irvine)

also showing

NEW YORK METROPOLITAN OPERA: THE MAGIC FLUTE
Director Julie Taymor, who brought puppetastic The Lion Kingto Broadway, now picks up Mozart's The Magic Flutefor this HD, big-screen shebang that includes dancing bears, flying birds and even a giant serpent. Non-opera fans will be happy to learn this is an abridged version of Mozart's classic, sung in English and featuring an attractive young cast—so no fatties (other than the ones torched in the parking lot). The Met's maestro James Levine conducts. (10:30 p.m. Sat., Edwards "Big One" Megaplex, Spectrum, Irvine)