This story of a married couple’s courting, betrayal and reunion – adapted from a novel by W. Somerset Maugham – is told in delicate, almost imperceptible notes. Edward Norton and Naomi Watts play the middle-class doctor and upper-class socialite who marry for conflicting reasons and set off to China. Both actors emphasize the loaded gestures and veiled asides that govern relationships in real life, as opposed to the melodramatic tirades that dominate the movies.
