I don't even remember which movie I was watching when I saw this as a trailer. It intrigued me, even though it wasn't my type of movie, because I like Edward Norton in just about anything.Kitty (Naomi Watts) is a young, spoiled Englishwoman who marries a lovesick doctor (Edward Norton) in order to get out of her parents' house. He is a bacteriologist working in Shanghai who is fairly obsessed with work and has no time for his wife's petty indulgences. Soon enough, she gets bored and has an affair with a Vice Consul (Liev Schrieber). Her husband finds out and threatens to divorce her unless she accompanies him into the Interior, where an outbreak of cholera is decimating a village. They trade passive-aggressive behaviors until Kitty gets interested in the plight of these people despite herself.
It's very lushly, almost dreamily shot, with some beautiful views of the inner provinces of China. Less beautiful, though I'm sure no less accurate, are the depictions of people dying of cholera, a spectacularly messy demise in an age with no ready access to hospital care. Overlaying it all are the tensions of a nationalist uprising in the wake of colonial excesses. I thought it was an interesting movie, and I could understand everyone's motivations perfectly. I didn't feel anything for it, but that's not really surprising.
Keep an eye out for the Mother Superior. That's the original Emma Peel from The Avengers, Diana Rigg.
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