The Painted Veil is a 2006 American drama film directed by John Curran. The screenplay by Ron Nyswaner is based on the 1925 novel of the same title by W. Somerset Maugham. Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Toby Jones, Anthony Wong Chau Sang and Liev Schreiber appear in the leading roles.

Plot

On a brief trip to London in the early 1920s, earnest and bookish bacteriologist Walter Fane is dazzled by Kitty Garstin, a London socialite. He proposes; she accepts ("only to get as far away from [her] mother as possible"), and the couple have a honeymoon in Venice. They travel to Walter's medical post in Shanghai, where he is stationed in a government lab studying infectious diseases. They are ill-suited, with Kitty much more interested in parties and the social life of the British expatriate community.

Awards