36. The Painted Veil

 Book 36: The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (B)

I'm a person who likes to watch movies before reading the book. I don't think it ruins the book at all. Sure, I know the ending of the book (most of the time) but I find the movie to be a nice overview of the novel then I get to read the extra bits the movie had to leave out. It's a win-win situation. The movie isn't ruined for me because it wasn't like the book and the book isn't ruined because I saw the ending. I, like most people, end up getting disappointed when a book-turned-movie doesn't end like the book. Like My Sister's Keeper.... WHAT?!?!?! Where did that ending come from???? That was just stupid!!!

Naomi Watts and Edward Norton as the Fanes

That being said... The Painted Veil movie with the handsome, cool Edward Norton was much better and smoother than the actual novel. As someone who has a keen interest in both literature and film, I see why the film producers did what they did to the movie to make it not the book. The book moves at a slow, steady pace and is only told from Kitty Fane's point of view. The movie taps into the cultural happenings that surround them in China and bring that to light for some action and speed. Also, the ending in the movie was MUCH BETTER than the one in the book.
Kitty is reaching middle age and still hasn't been married off. When Walter Fane arrives and proposes, she says yes just to move out of her mother's house. Walter is head-over-heels about Kitty, but Kitty couldn't care less about Walter the bacteriologist. Together, they sail from England to Hong Kong where Walter is doing research. In Hong Kong, Kitty meets Charlie Townsend, a charming politician who is everything Kitty has ever wanted in a man. Together, they have a long-lasting affair. When Walter finds out about it, he threatens Kitty with an ultimatum: I'll divorce you or you come with me into the heart of a cholera epidemic and be by my side. Horrified, Kitty runs to Charlie and asks him to run away with her, but he disappoints her as an adulterous man always will. Kitty is forced to travel to a small village in the Chinese countryside and be exposed to the worst cholera epidemic the country has ever seen.

Naomi and Liev Schrieber (Charlie)

The novel is beautiful but lacking. I'm not so in love with the movie to know that the book needs a bit more. I think having Walter's point of view would have been helpful in developing that character. Instead, he is a mystical figure that is hardly ever seen just read about in Kitty's never-ending string of thoughts. They never resolve anything and the ending isn't anywhere near as moving as the film's. I had also hoped to find the historical aspect as depicted in the movie with China's nationalist movement and more details of the cholera epidemic but found none whatsoever. The book, drawn out and a bit tedious, is just a story of a woman who has committed adultery and must deal with the consequences. Being in a cholera epidemic is just in the background...