The Painted Veil

I admit the first time I sat down to watch this movie I completely fell asleep. However, it's really engrossing -- I think I was just exhausted.

This movie is appealing and thought-provoking in many ways. Firstly, I think I want to go live in China. Seriously. I want to get away. However, a cholera epidemic is not exactly what I want to walk into.

One of the most memorable lines in the movie is "Do you despise me?" "No, I despise myself for letting myself love you." What a hurtful sentiment, but delivered to someone so deserving. You spend the first half of the movie hating the needy, substanceless wife, who cheated on her husband nonetheless. And, then you are so caught up when you see interchanges that indicate they are falling in love. And you just wonder about the order of things. I'd like to think I can fall in love before I say my vows.

And then the end has to come. And I think Edward Norton is actually pretty hot.

Another memorable expression is when Watts is talking to Toby Jones about an acquaintance (the man she had an affair with) and he says that the man's wife has commented that her husband involves himself with second-rate women. A telling moment because Watts realizes that she is one of these second-rate women. But then wouldn't any women who would have an affair with a married man be second-rate?