Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Painted Veil

I have agreed to be part of a group called movie bloggers. They found me due to the frequency of movie mentioning that goes on here. There is a link on the side if you want to check them out. I am not in any way claiming I have the credentials to review movies. I But I do see a lot of them.

The Painted Veil. I didn't expect to like it much because it seemed like it would be the predictable Masterpiece Theater sort of story--and it was to some extent. But it happened to hit upon one of my weaknesses as a movie watcher. I love movies where people learn to be good. This may never happen in life but I like to think it does. And it certainly does in literature and the movies. That's why Groundhog Dad is one of my favorite movies. Bill Murray learns to be good--and not just to attract Andie McDowell. He eventually finds satisfaction in being a good person.

The Painted Veil was also good for its exotic location, its acting and its lush production values. My only caveat was that it seemed like the Naomi Watts character should have been about ten years younger. Still she's such a spendid actress, she made it work. And Edward Norton is always compelling.

What kind of movies do you cut a little slack?

2 comments:

Steve Allan said...

I usually cut big, loud action movies a lot of slack. I watched Crank last night, and I loved it. It didn't make any sense and there were plot holes a mile wide, but it was so frantic and frivilous that I didn't care. Definitely a "leave your brain at the door" kind of movie.

But the movie group sounds cool. I look forward to some really insightful stuff.

pattinase (abbott) said...

As long as you don't expect any insightful comments from me--just the other blogs. Mine will be more along the lines of what I liked or didn't, I'm afraid.
I cut slack for movies I saw as a kid and the occassional romantic comedy.