--- description: Find out why "The Painted Veil" is on TIME's list of the 50 most underappreciated movies of the 21st Century. title: 'The Painted Veil' Is on The 50 Most Underappreciated Movies of the 21st Century image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dc0b227c9b21a58/6998cbdb07a30d75bf77d8ae/Underappreciated-Movies-The-Painted-Veil.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Feb 04, 2026 # _The Painted Veil_ John Curran by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/) ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic  Naomi Watts and Edward Norton in "The Painted Veil", 2006. Naomi Watts and Edward Norton in "The Painted Veil", 2006.Mary Evans—Warner China Film HG / Everett Collection Husbands and wives are often jerks to each other; it has always been so. In this 2006 adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel, directed by John Curran, [Naomi Watts](https://time.com/4838709/naomi-watts-quick-talk/ "undefined") and Edward Norton play Kitty and Walter Fane, a bacteriologist and a socialite bonded in wedded bliss, or so Walter thinks: he adores his wife, though it appears she has married him mostly in order to escape her haranguing mother, and to avoid becoming a burden to her father. Walter is stationed in Shanghai, where he’s studying infectious diseases. Kitty moves there with him, and she’s happy enough, especially after she launches an affair with a dashing married man, Liev Schreiber’s Charles Townshend, whom she sees as more exciting than her dutiful scientist husband. When Walter finds out, he threatens divorce in a wily bargain with Kitty, which she then loses. She’s forced to accompany him to a remote part of China, where a cholera epidemic has broken out, which to her seems like a fate worse than death—though in fact, it will become the real beginning of her life. This is a lush picture, though it never blurs the sometimes sharp edges of marital relationships. Kitty treats Walter badly; he responds with understandable harshness. But it’s the way they find their way back to one another that’s truly romantic. Also: look for a fantastic supporting performance from Diana Rigg, as a wise nun who knows a thing or two about husbands who resort to the silent treatment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/50-most-underappreciated-movies/7353543/the-painted-veil/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/50-most-underappreciated-movies/7353543/the-painted-veil/"},"headline":"The Painted Veil","datePublished":"2026-02-04T12:52:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T01:04:53.243Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/50-most-underappreciated-movies/7353543/the-painted-veil/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dc0b227c9b21a58/6998cbdb07a30d75bf77d8ae/Underappreciated-Movies-The-Painted-Veil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"creator":"Stephanie Zacharek","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dc0b227c9b21a58/6998cbdb07a30d75bf77d8ae/Underappreciated-Movies-The-Painted-Veil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/50-most-underappreciated-movies/7353543/the-painted-veil/","name":"The Painted Veil"}}]}] ```