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"When love and duty are one, grace is within you."

As one of the apparent guiding principles of this film, the statement cannot be more beautifully rendered. The 2006 film, The Painted Veil, begins as a simple 1920s love story between Walter and Kitty Fane, played brilliantly by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.

Dr. Walter Fane, shy but extremely intelligent, decides to study infectious diseases in China after discovering the rebellious Kitty is having an affair with his colleague Charlie Townsend, played by the talented Liev Schrieber. The marriage becomes even more cold and apathetic in China admidst a raging cholera epidemic, but the characters come to grow and mature along with their relationship with each other.

The movie, based on the novel by Somerset Maugham, presents a compelling story that was also rendered to film by Greta Garbo in 1934. Kitty's transformation from the spoiled and petty girl who opens the film is utterly convincing, as is Walter's move from indifferent to impassioned.

The drama is highlighted in part by the music, which reflects the time period and the place as much as it accents the characters. The musical score won a Golden Globe in 2007, proof of the power of its beauty to stand alone. The backdrop of China is stunning - even against the pictures of sickness and poverty in the film it is not hard to be awed by the beauty of the lush mountain regions and wide epxanses of field and farmland that dot the landscape of the film.

Overall this is a beautiful film on multiple levels. As director, John Curran is able to pull together excellent actors and a poignant script to create something that is as touching as it is memorable.

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