The English Patient

Rating:
Summary: There are two types of people: those who get it and the rest
Review: I have heard many people call this film stupid, or boring, or they say that they hated it, and once again I marvel at the subjectiveness of life. I LOVE this film. The film not only is gorgeous and haunting, but it sumptuously examins the complex world of human emotions in a very intelligent and provocative way. The love story is conveyed through the half-dreams of a dying man, and this lends the whole story a bittersweetness that is rarely captured on film without being cheesy. Meanwhile the film is held up by a cast of amazing charaters, and beautiful cinematography. Anyone with a taste for beauty, the finer side of life, adventure, and romance (in the old sense of the word) will love it too. Those who do not I feel have just plain missed the point, or completely lack imagination.

Rating:
Summary: I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU, YOU IDIOT
Review: The English Patient is one of my favourite films of all time. The cast is brilliant, the scenery and cinematography throughout are unsurpassed, the story is a love story without being too emotionally taxing or juvenile, and the soundtrack is perfectly haunting. I knew from the first moment the film began that I would love it. The soundtrack is mostly made up of Hungarian folk music from the renowned Hungarian group Muzsikás. Music I had been listening to and loving for years was finally making its way into the public eye (and ear). The story, like the book, is told in a non-linear fashion. Slowly the identity of the English patient begins to unravel, as he (a brilliant and restrained Ralph Fiennes) reminisces of his life before his plane accident. The storyline of the past, including Fiennes' love affair with his colleague's wife (Kristin Scott Thomas at her best), includes some beautiful scenery of the desert where Fiennes and his colleagues are mapmakers whose work is delayed by the onset of World War II. Colin Firth is excellent as the doting and eventually murderously jealous husband of Kathryn (Scott Thomas). In the present day, the tragedies that continually befall Juliette Binoche's character, Hana, come center stage. She has lost her fiance and her best friend in the war, and now she is taking care of Fiennes's character who will eventually die. She falls in love with a Sikh bomb expert who comes to stay in the abandoned Italian convent where she is temporarily staying to take care of Fiennes. The story is quite complex and worth every moment of unraveling the complexity.

Rating:
Summary: I wish I could love it
Review: Let's not even get into the "Fargo" vs "English Patient" arguement. Yeah this movie has flaws...lots of them in fact, but at least it's trying! While Fargo was a thoroughly nauseating bore, the English Patient was merely an under-realized story with lots of lush cinematography,and some technically masterful direction. I am a big fan of Minghella! He is one of the few directors out there that genuinely tries to hit one out of the park each time at bat. As with all directors however; he could not overcome the essential thinness of his material . In the end there is too large a discrepancy between what the movie should have been and what it is. P.T. Anderson "almost" sold me on the plight of his miserable characters in Magnolia (despite also having a weak narrative); a feat Minghella ultimately could not pull off with the "English Patient".

Rating:
Summary: Sickening Repulsive Filth!
Review: Grotesque and perverse. Wide screen nausia. Just not right!

Rating:
Summary: The English's Favorite Movie, But Not Mine
Review: During World War II, when a mysterious stranger (Ralph Fiennes, Schindler's List) is rescued from a fiery plane crash, he is cared for by American allies unaware of the dangerous secrets of his past. Yet, as the mystery of his identity is slowly revealed, an incredible tale of passion, intrigue and adventure unfolds! Also starring Kristin Scott Thomas (Four Weddings And A Funeral) and Willem Dafoe (Clear And Present Danger), The English Patient is a powerful cinematic triumph sure to entertain you!

Rating:
Summary: Groan...
Review: If you find adultry as hopelessly romantic, then this is the movie for you. The beautiful images and sweeping landscapes conjure up a tale of old, when women were often prisonners in an arranged marriage to an evil husband, and their lovers rescued them from fair castles. However, the heroine is merely a girl who married before she knew what she wanted, and the hero merely a man who is stealing his best friend's wife. These characters solve problems by running away from them, not by staying true to themselves.

Rating:
Summary: extremely overrated
Review: I found this film one of the most pretentious and arty films. I didn't like the character Ralph Fiennes played. I didn't care whether he would die or not and didn't care about his love affair. I could barely see through this film although I am pretty much patient with art films.

Rating:
Summary: WORTH EVERY NOMINATION
Review: The English Patient is one of the best crafted movies of the last years.All aspects of the film are outstanding: acting, cinematography, score,script,art direction. The chemistry between Fiennes and Scott Thomas is superb and the core of the movie. I have to agree that this movie is worth all its twelve oscar nominations and nine wins. Rarely you see a movie so well executed.

Rating:
Summary: Three stars for cinematography and costuming. That's it.
Review: Other than that, I would rate it two stars. The movie was too long and spent three hours trying to get the audience to feel sorry for the obsessive love of two adulterers. NOT. It was kind of like Titanic, with a long thoroughly boring love story. Want a good North African desert movie? Try Lawrence of Arabia, Three Kings, Casablanca.

Rating:
Summary: Some people just did not get this movie....wonder why
Review: This movie was perfect in every way...engaging story, cinematography, performances, and score. All of these elements created a perfect movie. This movie kept me interested to the very end. Ralph Fiennes did a wonderful job with his performance, as did everyone else in this beautiful film. I did not notice that the film dragged at all. I was taken in by every moment. I feel that this picture deserved every Oscar that it won. A film like this is very rare. People need to appreciate it for what it is. The many people who have bashed this film obviously missed the whole point. They need to give it a second viewing, and watch it with an open mind. This is definitly a must-see, and I am glad that I own it. This movie defines "art" in every sense of the word, and it needs to be seen. Highly recommended!