Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Painted Veil


My sister and I decided to watch a movie together last night - or yesterday morning. And let me tell you first, my sister is quite picky, and choosing a movie with her is always a long, frustrating process. We sat there, imdbing every movie I got, reading plots and reviews, until we finally settled unwillingly on The Painted Veil.

For the next 2 hours we just stared at the screen, mesmerized, we couldn't take our eyes off.. except for the time we had to pause it and pray AlFajr. We dropped too few comments, mostly me whining over how cute Kitty's dresses and shoes are.

A snobby young woman, Kitty, gets married to a bacteriologist she doesn't love, Walter, just to get her mother off her back and ties the knot before her sister. Walter goes to China as he's specialized in infectious diseases to help in the epidemics there and takes Kitty with him. She has an affair with Charles, a married man and a serial womanizer. Walter finds out and lets her choose between going with him to the village he volunteered in to help with the Cholera epidemic there, or asking Charles to divorce his wife and marries her. Of course Charles turns her down and she obediently goes along afraid of the scandal her husband might cause if he files for a divorce because of adultery.

They live in the village like two strangers under one roof. He's started to ignore her, putting all his efforts in his work. Like she doesn't exist.

That's when it hit me.. The unforgivable mistake always gives me a shudder. And I hate to think this kind of thing exists. It hurts to see relationships break down because of an obstacle that one or both thought it made it impossible for them to step over it and go on with their life. I do believe every mistake, every sin, every foolish act, can be forgiven. And well, love conquers all, doesn't it? And I mean all kinds of relationships out there. Because I've seen friendships wreck, siblings don't talk anymore, couples split up.. and for what?
Each one of us has done or will do something really terrible at some point. It doesn't mean life must stop there and everything just falls apart.
Why not try and forgive someone who's trying real hard to mend? Why waste time on holding hard feelings? Life is too short!

Well anyway, he eventually smiled back at her, and I let out the breath I'd been holding since the confrontation :D

The movie was so.. real. I loved it. And the fact that it was based on a novel kept me thinking the whole movie 'I wonder how that scene is originally written in the book'.. but Farah and I made a deal, it's either book or movie. Never both.
Bummer.


Now, what's your definition of unforgivable mistake?

19 comments:

Hasan.B said...

There is a newer version I think, I saw that, not bad as well

Princess Famme said...

I guess I've seen the newer version, Not bad at all.
I think every person deserve a second chance in life no matter what his mistake was, but we should be smart enough not to fall in the same trap.. we forgive but might not forget.. take that in mind.. life is seriously too short to fill our heart with burden .. Live Laugh and Love :D

Hasan.B said...

Oh to add it to my comment. Some mistakes should never be forgiven

mai said...

unforgivable mistake ..
I dunno what's unforgivable it depends .. but I wonder how they live after the " forgiveness " I mean everything goes back to normal ? even if they tried that much I don't think so .. I dunno ..

Anonymous said...

hi pinkish,
lovely review; i started downloading the movie
thumbs up*
abt unforgivable mistake; some ppl pretend that there is no such "phrase"! hell yaa, there is mistakes that u can't forgive like when a very strong relatioship is broken u can't remake it again specially if the person that u were decived by was unforgivable, or let's say in this way; he/she doesn't deserve to be foregiven; unless, i didn't mean like we r not able 2 forgive or hloding grudges over ppl, but some mistakes lead u think twice and learn from it.
keep it up sis.
Venus
http://venusad.maktoobblog.com/

Anonymous said...

Edward Norton!! is the most talented actor this world has to witness.

Conducting his acting attributes with such passion, accuracy and feel.

Unfortunately he is extremely underrated :(

Hind ♥ said...

Hasan,
That's the one, the 2006 movie.
Even if the one who did it really, really regrets it?

Princess Famme,
I agree with every word :D

Mai,
Yeah that's the sad part of it. Some can't just completely forget about it, no matter how hard they try.

Venus,
You're so right. You'd only forgive those who don't deserve to be so you could have some peace of mind in your life ;)

Anon,
I know! You can't just not love him. He's one of my favorite actors <3

ZeZe said...

Forgive but never forget. It's a life experience. Well i was once broken and mended but i could never forget the way i got hurt and i got scared wanna trust again. Mistake was forgiven and its already let go. Its somehow like a shadow in the past, reminding me never continue the wrong path again.

cookiesobsession said...

I couldn't agree more with the comments above. I don't think any mistake unforgivable because everything has a reason and a time and a purpose......therefore the judgmental forgiveness is replaced by the logical excusing in the end once all the story is known and absorbed and compassionate humanistic thinking is applied. If you refuse to correct your mistake or do not apologize when you know you were wrong. That makes you seem arrogant and unwilling to accept the fact that you were wrong.
Forgive and forget.
Forgive others, as Allah forgives us. Forgive others, as Allah forgives you.

cookiesobsession said...

About the movie inshallah I'll get it today. Thank you =]

ZeZe said...

Cookiesobsession: Agreed with you in this point bs can you forgive betrayal? He is someone you thought you wound end up with but you find him cheating behind you while you waiting for him all your life,thinking that your going to marry to him and he promise you everything? Dreams,promises and future broken and shattered.At one point, I'm speechless. I caught all these betrayals by myself, i forgave millions times and chances given but it's still repeating. This is what i meant by something that is forgiven but unable to forget in my comment above.I already forgave and forgot and left all those behind and began a new life with someone worthy bs the memories still remained as the scar =) but I'm happy now with what i chose.

byteofcoffee said...

I don't think people actually forgive. And wounds don't heal with time. But good old forgetfulness tends to do the biding, that's when it becomes bearable.

cookiesobsession said...

Zara: I highly disrespect betrayal, it's really something awful and I don't think someone will accept that, but even betrayal it can be forgiven. If it was truly a "mistake", & the person is truly repentant then you should always forgive & move on, however this is easier said than done if the "mistake" hurts us emotionally. then it may be quite sometime before we can find it within ourselves to forgive, but you still should, even though you'd never forget, as the pain of carrying it within us only hurts ourselves. It's just take a matter of time to recover from it. May Allah help us.

Balqees said...

I LOVED THAT MOVIE

at first i didn't want to watch it
by my sister made me
and in the end i ended up loving it :D

anyhoo
i don't know mistake should be unforgivable
coz i make and made ALOT of mistakes and i didn't mean to hurt the ppl that got hurt and i wanted them to forgive me
so i think that anythying could be forgiven if the mistake wasn't ment to hurt someone ..





i just re-read it and it ddn't make that much sence :S
it made since in my mind lol

Hind ♥ said...

Zara,
True. It'd be naive to let your guard down and not have learned your lesson. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I'm happy you're feeling that way :D

8BOC,
I like this explanation :D but it doesn't always apply.

CO,
Exactly! :)

Queen B.,
LOL it does make sense. Bs the purpose doesn't really matter if the other person's got hurt.

Hasan.B said...

Regret is not enough sometimes. How can you continue to live with someone who has cheated on you and lied to your face? I personally can not

rawan said...

I saw it year ago :) nice movie and amazing story :)

Raisa said...

my definition of an unforgivable mistake would really be commiting a mistake twice,

am a nice person, I don't hold grudges or whatever, but I think I'll lose that quality if someone just ignored everything and did the same mistake they've already done, that would be my red line you know, it never happen'd before, but I'm just saying :)

btw, I saw the movie a year ago, it does sound like a movie you'd enjoy :P but how come you labl'd the movie real, ha? :D that wasn't my impression, but anyways!


~ take care

hissweetheart said...

A friend recommended it to me. I saw it months ago and was bored at the beginning lol

Nice story but repeated!