The movies are really popping all of a sudden.  Notes on a Scandal is excellent acting and a gripping story but it is very depressing.  Lies, deception, cheating, manipulating, and only about 30 seconds of hope in the entire movie.

The Painted Veil was more hopeful while still full of lies and deception, etc.  Walter Fane is a doctor, actually a bacteriologist working in China.  He marries Kitty, a spoiled young woman desparate to get out of her mother's home and boring life.

Through some interesting circumstances Walter and Kitty end up in a small, isolated village suffering a terrible cholera epidemic.

Lift the painted veil that people wear to hide their real selves, poet Percy Shelley suggested, and there's a good chance you will find fear and ugliness. But you also might find hope.

This Painted veil deals with human emotions, the evils inflicted on people by class and race, forgiveness, love, revenge and more.  It is a love story and a social commentary.  Kitty meets a nun in a convent who speaks with great candor concerning her own "marriage" to God. "When love and duty are one, then you have grace in you." is a rough paraphrase of the nun's lesson.

The scenery in this movie is outstanding.  The views alone are worth the price of admission.  The story is deeper than it first appears.  Good movie.