The painted veil
|Directed by |John Curran |
|Produced by |Edward Norton |
| |Naomi Watts |
|Release date(s) |December 20, 2006 (US) |
|Country |China |
| |USA |
| |Canada |
Cast
• Edward Norton ..... Walter Fane • Naomi Watts ..... Kitty Garstin Fane • Toby Jones ..... Waddington • Diana Rigg ..... Mother Superior • Anthony Wong Chau Sang ..... Colonel Yu • Sally Hawkins ..... Mary • Liev Schreiber ..... Charles Townsend
Plot
Shortly after meeting earnest, socially awkward bacteriologist Walter Fane at a party, vivacious, vain, and vacuous London socialite Kitty Garstin enters into a loveless marriage with him at the urging of her domineering mother. Following a honeymoon in Venice, the couple go to Shanghai, where the doctor is stationed in a government lab studying infectious diseases. Kitty meets Charles Townsend, a married British vice consul, and the two engage in a clandestine affair. When Walter discovers his wife's infidelity, he seeks to punish her by threatening to divorce her on the grounds of adultery if she doesn't accompany him to a small village in a remote area of China, where he has volunteered to treat victims of an unchecked cholera epidemic sweeping through the area. Kitty begs to be allowed to divorce him quietly and he agrees, provided Townsend will leave his wife Dorothy and marry her. When she proposes this possibility to her lover, he declines to accept, and she is compelled to travel to the mountainous inland region