The Painted Veil

The Painted Veil opens in a florist shop where we learn that Kitty's family doesn't buy flowers, because why should you buy something that you can grow. They also don't grow flowers because it is "silly to put all that effort into something that's just going to die." Certainly an unromantic beginning to a love story. Well, I say it's a love story, but it takes a while to get there.

Kitty is a daughter of an upper-class British family. She seems to have no real interest in marriage because she's never fallen in love with anyone and can't see the point of marrying. But soon societal and family pressure leads her to consent to marry Walter Fane, a bacteriologist headed for China as part of the bureaucracy of the British Empire. Walter and Kitty are an ill-matched pair. Kitty yearns for passion; Walter is cold and detached. They become part of the British society in China where Kitty is seduced by Vice Consul Charlie Townsend. They have an intense affair, but Walter discovers it. A divorce would ruin Kitty's reputation, so he offers her an alternative -- go with him to the middle of a cholera epidemic in rural China.

They are now away from all that seems like civilization to Kitty. But Walter hasn't brought her to Mei-tan-fu to rekindle a flame -- they never had any flame. He has brought her here to punish her -- possibly even have her die from the disease. As Walter tries to fight the disease (he is more concerned with the microbe than patients, as he tells the Chinese doctor there, he's an M.D., but not a clinician), Kitty has nothing to do. In time she becomes involved with the nuns who are caring for the dying patients and for the orphaned children.

As I said above, it takes a while to become a love story, because the story we see is of a loveless marriage -- built on convenience, pride, spitefulness, and vengeance. They care so little about each other that it seems unimportant that the other might get sick in this far away place.

Over the course of the film, Walter and Kitty learn that passion and love are not restricted to the physical manifestations. There is a far more spiritual nature to love and to passion. As Kitty works with the nuns, the Mother Superior tells her of her own journey. When she was young she was passionately in love -- with God. But as the years piled up, and there were times God wasn't there (or so it seemed) they settled into an indifferent comfort -- like an old married couple. She has learned, she tells Kitty "where love and duty are one, then grace is with you." For Walter and Kitty, the process has to work in reverse -- they only had the indifferent comfort; from there they must find their passion.

In time we will learn if it really is "silly to put all that effort into something that's just going to die." That is an issue that faces us each day. How much effort should we put in to relationships or people or jobs that are transitory (as all are)? It is part of the issue that the writer of Ecclesiastes pondered: "For who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which they pass like a shadow? For who can tell them what will be after them under the sun?"

The Painted Veil is the kind of love story that moves us not through its romance, but because it shows us what makes life worthwhile.