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Summary: ONE OF THE DECADE'S FINEST
Review: This extraordinary masterpiece has been ridiculed as being overlong and dull and bland. Any TRUE cinema buff who thinks that can no longer call themselves a fan of film after absorbing this incredible piece of art into their systems! The final 10 minutes are so incredibly moving and heartwrenching, they make you cry in sorrow for the characters fates and they also make you cry out in joy for the sheer power that cinema like this can be! How many movies can do that? Not many-excpt this beautiful epic of wonder.
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Summary: I cried so HARD!
Review: This movie was so beautiful. I wish there was love like that in every movie. The acting was superb, especially Ralph Fiennes. This movie had a great plot and the scenery of the desert was exquisite. I LOVED this movie.
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Summary: What's Not to Love?
Review: To those who do not like this movie, you are quite frankly -- insane. This is a PHENOMENAL MOVIE and MOST who have seen it LOVE IT!
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Summary: An English masterpiece in search for the human feelings.
Review: From the desert of Sahara comes a truly original love story, proving that in memory love lives forever. This is the main idea of The English Patient, an English production that deserves each merit that it has received. It can be even a very long film. But be "patient" and you will discover a masterpiece, an oasis among a desert of weak cinematographic productions. The English Patient is such a perfect motion picture, for an independent production, that it seems to be a mirage. It has one of the most beautiful cinematography and probably the most wonderful soundtrack of all times. Moreover, it has a great art direction, excellent performances by Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and a remarkable direction by Anthony Minghella. The English Patient is an English masterpiece in which the human being, in search for its feelings, discover what love and solidarity really means. You can even not consider this film so touching and deep as I am describing. But I am certain that every time you watch The English Patient you will feel better than you were, as part of the human kind.
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Summary: Layers upon layers upon layers
Review: An unusually rich, complex tale with characters to match. Wonderful music and cinemotography. I thought the moral ambiguity of the Patient (is he hero or villian?) was handled well. Tinglingly romantic, girls, but I think there is plenty of action to draw in theguys as well. Like a sensual, erotic dream. Loved it!
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Summary: Love & Loss in Wartime
Review: To the critics of this spectacular film: please consider its context -wartime,WWII to be exact. More than anything, the main characters share the pain of something they have lost - Hanna has lost previous patients, Kip has lost his partner, Carravagio has lost his fingers, and the Count has lost his lover. How they deal with their loss and the stories that surround them are fascinating. This is a multi-dimensional film that should not be dismissed as simply another "war romance". Was it predictable ? Hardly, if anything, it kept me in total suspense and admiration. When it was over, I spent a long time thinking about those characters. Wonderful movie - also this was a Miramax effort that no major Hollywood studio would touch. Thank goodness for that.
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Summary: Ditto "organannie" from Ontario (above)
Review: Lovely to look at, interesting subplots, but the main story is GARBAGE
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Summary: Tedious and Cliched
Review: I bought the video based upon the non-stop praise the movie received from all of the critics, but didn't have the time to watch it straight through, so I watched it an hour a day. Somebody told me that if I liked the beginning then I would like the rest of the movie. I did like the beginning, but then the rest of the movie happened and like so many other popular movies like Top Gun, Backdraft, Dante's Peak and Deep Impact, the story became completely and utterly predictable, just with a slower pace and more literary refernces tossed in to make it seem intelligent. It isn't anywhere as good as Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca or Howard's End, and it certainly didn't deserve the Best Picture Award. Fargo was robbed.
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Summary: Good Book
Review: A good book, a little hard to understand the first time round, but re read and you will be pleased! The film is also good, but make sure you read the book first
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Summary: For die-hard romance fans only
Review: I'll admit it at the outset: I didn't get this movie. Maybe that was my problem. Part way through, I thought perhaps it was supposed to be a sly parody of romance movies: the joke scene with the dashing, brooding, blatantly Byronic hero mending the post-coital dress of his bland but beautiful love interest -- that was a tip-off, right? This guy knows that "bodice-ripper" is a pejorative, right? I thought maybe there was supposed to be an ironic contrast between the madly destructive lovers in the desert and the casual May-May romance between the nurse and the Sikh. But as the film wore on, it didn't seem like the story could bear out this interpretaion. So I was compelled to dislike it. Strongest grievance -- I was disturbed by the insinuation that the Muslim nurse had fewer scruples about mutilating a man than some of the Nazis did.I've heard the book was better than the film. So be it. I'm happy that there are people who liked, nay loved one or both. But a general warning -- stay away if you've got the least amount of classicism in your temperament, and prefer to have emotions purged, not splattered with abandon all over the walls.
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