The Painted Veil | pinartarhan.com

Dangerous Beauty starring Rufus Sewell & Catherine McCormack

Posted on February 18, 2011 Written by ripitup

Dangerous Beauty starring Rufus Sewell & Catherine McCormack. Feat. Jacqueline Bisset, Naomi Watts & Oliver Platt. Image via cinemanow.com

Marco (Rufus Sewell), a handsome and fun-loving guy from an established Venice family. And life is going just fine for him – especially after he falls in love with his sister (Moira Kelly)’s friend Veronica (Catherine McCormack).

Veronica and Marco are crazy about one another. But their happiness lasts only until Marco’s father reminds him that he has to marry according to his station; that is marrying to a girl with parents with the right background. Marco accepts this, devastating Veronica.

Veronica is intelligent, beautiful, modern and elegant. She is also a poet and a romantic. But since her pen wouldn’t feed her or her family, her mother (Jacqueline Bisset) comes up with the most shocking career option: being a courtesan. Although she is outraged by the idea, sleeping with men for money sounds better than living in a convent. So after some training, Veronica turns into the perfect seductress

Of course Marco is shocked and he is disappointed, especially when he is one of the very few men in Venice who is rejected by her – the other one being his own cousin Maffio (Oliver Platt).

Now, Marco is stuck in an unhappy marriage, still madly in love with Veronica. Veronica still isn’t over him and as events unfold, they will find it impossible to stay apart. But Maffio has sworn for revenge and when war strikes, Veronica might just lose all the power she has and witness the whole country turn against her, except for Marco…

The movie is a lovely, romantic period drama with wonderful performances from both Rufus Sewell and Catherine McCormack. Oliver Platt is always fun to watch, even when he plays the jerk.

Naomi Watts has a supporting role as Marco’s wife. The scenery, costumes and the art direction are simply beautiful. It is romantic and thought-provoking. Catherine’s character Veronica is really inspiring. She really had the guts to question the hypocrisy of her time.

It is especially recommended for the fans of period dramas and Rufus Sewell. You might remember Catherine McCormack from her short but very important role in 1995’s Braveheart.

Also on Naomi Watts

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The Painted Veil starring Edward Norton & Naomi Watts

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Tristan and Isolde starring James Franco, Sophia Myles and Rufus Sewell

The British Actors We Love feat. Rufus Sewell, Colin Firth, Daniel Day Lewis

The Woodlanders: A Gorgeous Rufus Sewell in an Awful Movie

In a Savage Land with Rufus Sewell

Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence: Fun romcom with Monica Potter, Rufus Sewell and Joseph Fiennes

Vinyan starring Rufus Sewell

The Illusionist with Edward Norton, Rufus Sewell and Jessica Biel

Stone starring Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, Milla Jovovich & Frances Conroy

Posted on January 6, 2011 Written by ripitup

Stone starring Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, Milla Jovovich & Frances Conroy

Whoa. I just watched Stone and I feel a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders. Stone ended up being one of the worst disappointments ever.

I admit I had high expectations. Although I didn’t expect an original plot, I wanted interesting characters, a good direction (John Curran was directing) and a flowing story. I got none.

Here’s what happens in the film:

Stone (Edward Norton) is a convict, serving time for arson. He has to persuade the seasoned parole officer Jack (Robert De Niro) that he deserves early freedom. But he believes that it will be easier if his gorgeous wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) seduces Jack as well.

At first Jack is wary and unresponsive to Lucetta, but it doesn’t take that long for her to get him to have sex with her. But with two people as unstable as Lucetta and Stone, can Jack prevent his wife (Frances Conroy) from finding out?

Ok, the plot did seem entirely predictable before watching but I was relying on the director John Curran to make it worth. After all, he and Edward Norton gave us the wonderful The Painted Veil. But while not being as predictable as anticipated, Stone doesn’t deserve the label thriller at all. Yes, it is drama but I am not sure it even deserves that title. After all dramas are supposed to give you at least one character worth worrying about? Worth caring for?

Jack lives with his depressed, over-religious wife. But he alone is the one to blame for such a soulless existence. He treated his wife like she wasn’t even there over 4 decades ago and when she wanted to leave, he almost threw their kid out of the window. No, this really happened. He literally took his own child from the bed and threatened to throw her out! His wife freaked and stayed. And that scene was the only interesting scene of the movie.

Milla Jovovich plays Stone’s sex-crazed wife who seems to be mad about her husband- so mad in fact that she would seduce the much older Stone. But even before Stone, she gets to f*** some guy out of the blue. And in the daytime, she is a school teacher, teaching young children. Ouch.

And Stone sounds like stoned through the whole movie. Yes, Edward creatively invents a character but his rants grow old and boring pretty quickly.

The movie is soulless and well, I mostly blame it on the writer Angus MacLachlan.

Frankly, there are tens of other Norton and De Niro movies you should watch before you should waste time on this one. And hey, if you are in the mood for Norton’s weird rants, and all the weird religious talk on the radio…

Currently, at 6.0 on IMDB, it is annoyingly overrated. And this is coming from a major Norton fan.

Also on Edward Norton

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Leaves of Grass

Kingdom of Heaven

Down in the Valley

25th Hour

Fight Club

The Illusionist

The Painted Veil

American History X

Primal Fear

The Incredible Hulk

Pride and Glory

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Stardust, The Air I Breathe, Playing by Heart, The Good Shepherd, Hairspray & He’s Just Not That Into You: 6 Good Movies with Brilliant Casts

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Pride and Glory with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell

Posted on February 18, 2010 Written by ripitup

Pride and Glory with Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight and Noah Emmerich. Raymond (Norton) has already lost his love to help protect other cops. He doesn’t want to do the same mistakes but how the hell do you do the right thing when the wrong involves your brother( Emmerich) and brother-in-law (Farrell) ?

When 4 NYPD cops die during an operation, it is especially devastating for Jimmy Eagen (Colin Farrell). It is not exactly an emotional trauma, though. Jimmy and his remaining corrupt group of cops have to clean up the mess before it is too late. However things are going to be much harder; since Jimmy’s father-in-law (Jon Voight) – unaware of his involvement- insists that his son Raymond takes the case. Though unwilling, Raymond (Edward Norton) starts looking into events, and it doesn’t take long before he realizes that there are cops involved behind the crimes and the cops might be too close to home. Is Ray’s brother, also a cop, Francis (Noah Emmerich) involved as well?

Forget about the movie’s name, plot summaries you might read and definitely stay away from the trailer. When I first saw the trailer, I thought: “Shit, another corrupt cop story with family issues thrown in”. Seemed to cliché, too overdone. But the fact is, the movie is much more than any of its promotional elements suggests. It is strong, grabbing and despite all the familiar themes, it stands on its two feet and ends up impresses you. Characters are complicated and they are all flawed.

Colin Farrell puts in a good performance. Edward Norton is in his usual element, although maybe playing Jimmy would have been more fun. Noah Emmerich is just outstanding as Francis- the brother who should have paid more attention to the cops under him, but was too busy taking care of his dying wife.

All in all, this is a good movie with solid performances. There is too much swearing that might distract you from time to time, but considering the characters, it suits them.

It doesn’t have one dull moment in it and the drama is just as exciting as the action.6.7 on imdb. Deserves a 7, at the very least.

All Movies with Edward Norton:

Leaves of Grass

Kingdom of Heaven

Down in the Valley

25th Hour

Fight Club

The Illusionist

The Painted Veil

American History X

Primal Fear

The Incredible Hulk

Death to Smoochy

All Movies Featuring Colin Farrell

Pride and Glory review – starring Edward Norton and Colin Farrell

5 Movies to Watch on Fast Forward

3 Romantic Roles of Edward Norton

Posted on February 12, 2010 Written by ripitup

Yes, we know he can play a psycho, a gambler, a man who is going to jail the very next day or he can just star in the cult film Fight Club. It is so easy to get used to this diversity and we are not exactly surprised when he plays the nice, romantic fellow occasionally. But of course being Edward Norton, even his romantic parts are very different from each other. So here is a list of three (very) good movies and links to its reviews:

* Keeping The Faith

Edward Norton has directed this lovely comedy where a rabbi and a priest reunite with their old childhood friend (Elfman) and eventually both fall in love with her. Both these guys are very popular, modern and fun. But of course Norton’s character Brian Finn isn’t supposed to date. Or flirt. Or fall in love. Oops…

You can read the review below:

http://www.articlesbase.com/movies-articles/keeping-the-faith-with-edward-norton-jenna-elfman-and-ben-stiller-1852125.html

The Painted Veil

It is sad, romantic, touching, powerful and poetic. It is well-done in every way. Not your typical love affair either. An unfaithful wife (Watts) is forced by her doctor husband (Norton) to go the most dangerous place (1920s, political chaos- combined with a cholera epidemic) in China. But maybe they were both too quick to judge and despise each other? Produced by Norton and Watts. A must-see. To find out more about the film (no spoilers there either):

https://pinartarhan.com/blog/the-painted-veil-with-naomi-watts-and-edward-norton/

The Illusionist

The Illusionist takes you to a magical Vienna with fine cast: Edward Norton, Jessica Biel, Paul Giamatti and Rufus Sewell.Romantic, mystical, mysterious and lovely. For the review:

https://pinartarhan.com/blog/the-illusionist-with-edward-norton-and-jessica-biel/

Would love to hear what you think of these movies. You can comment here, on their individual pages.