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?