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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated The Painted Veil (2007) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020

The Painted Veil (2007)

2007 | Drama, Romance

8.0

(2 Ratings)

Movie Rating

If there's one thing John Curran excels at more than anything, it's evoking emotionally gut-wrenching performances out of his actors over a gorgeous backdrop & score to deliver not-great-not-awful dialogue for a potentially stimulating premise that deserves more than just the okay execution he ends up giving it. An oddly specific trademark, now that I think about it. As decent a recreation of an Old Hollywood romance as the year 2006 probably could have offered, with as skilled and engrossing performers such as Watts and Norton (finnicky accent from the latter aside - they're tremendous) this is still more than watchable in spite of its lack of any nuanced bone in its body. Could have rated this even higher to tell the truth - it is quite sophisticated and well paced after all - though not only does it rush itself out the door in its final scenes, but the age-old "white people save misguided foreign nation" stuff really turns me off here. It's like it intentionally brushes off all its politics in favor of ensuring these two white people remain relatively happy. At one point the Mother Superior gives an entire lecture about how Watts saving her own ass and finding her husband is more important religiously than staying and helping all of the deathly ill Chinese people and the horribly undermanned staff overseeing them. Not the only time it does something like that either, but for what it's worth this does it much less aggressively than other films like it, I guess? Wouldn't watch it again but I liked it, it is what it is.

Kudos

Lottie disney bookworm (1056 KP) rated Disney Inspired Recipes in Books

Sep 9, 2019

Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!

Well now you can!

Have you ever fancied making Tiana’s beignets or Linguini’s soup? Then this is the book for you.

Thomas Beard’s recipe book contains 30 recipes inspired by…you guessed it…Disney!

If I’m honest it was the gorgeous cover that initially attracted me to this book but there are definitely so many recipes I want to try. Keep an eye on my instagram for any attempts – hopefully they won’t be a Pinterest fail!

The first recipe i am desperate to try is the iconic grey stuff from Beauty and the Beast. It’s actually an oreo vanilla mix which sounds like heaven!

I also want to try the honey cake (a la the silly old bear) and the cursed cake from Brave. Not that I have a sweet tooth or anything!

There are some recipes that are undoubtedly “padding”. I’m looking at you Lady and the Tramp Spaghetti and Meatballs and Tangled Hazlenut Soup. Nevertheless there are some others that I wouldn’t have thought of and it was these surprises that I really appreciated because it would be so easy to be lazy and fill a book of Mulan’s Chinese curry, Little John’s stew or similar.

Once you get past the disappointment of the Harry Potter style text on a Disney cover, this book is definitely worth a look. Like all recipe books there are some that I will probably skip past (corn dogs, cheese souffle) but the addition of recipes inspired by Big Hero 6 and The Emperor’s New Groove more than makes up for them.