The Painted Veil is the best movie we've seen in a while. It's based on the Somerset Maugham novel (which I've not read) and tells the story of the healing of a marriage after an affair.It's not the point of the tale by any means, but the movie makes an interesting case against no-fault divorce (it's set in the 1920s). I'm by no means calling for a return to arranged marriages and the revoking of women's suffrage, but in our age we're quick to denounce the old social conventions as if they never served any purpose --were merely conventions, or expressions of patriarchy and prejudice. None of the emotional and spiritual growth depicted in this story could take place on film today --because the characters would a) never marry in the first place or b) simply divorce twenty minutes in, and we'd pick up our popcorn and go home. This is a nice depiction of what happens when flawed but fundamentally decent people are "trapped" by social conventions.
