The English Patient (1996)
84 %
Reviews Counted: 56 Fresh: 47 Rotten:9 Average Rating: 7.8/10
Consensus:
Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving.
Runtime: 2 hrs 42 mins
Synopsis: Set during World War II, this film adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel concerns a horribly scarred, amnesiac mapmaker (Ralph Fiennes) who is found by Bedouins in the desert and then transported to Italy. When Allied nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) devotes herself to caring for the... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Naveen Andrews
Director: Anthony Minghella
Producer: Saul Zaentz
Screenwriter: Anthony Minghella
Story: Michael Ondaatje
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Producer: Saul Zaentz
Screenwriter: Anthony Minghella
Story: Michael Ondaatje
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Overlong and stifling high-class desert war story that mixes a tearjerker romance with a beguiling mystery story.
Comment
03/13/08
Out of each of these uprooted characters are spun stories of love, loyalty and betrayal.
01/29/08
Top Critic
The whole film is permeated with tenderness for its hurt characters, whom Minghella sees as just a small slice in the fellowship of people who love and suffer.
01/29/08
The cast is superb: Binoche, with her thin, seraphic smile; Scott Thomas, aware of the spell she casts but not flaunting it; Fiennes, especially, radiating sexy mystery, threat shrouded in hauteur. Doom and drive rarely have so much stately star quality.
01/29/08
Top Critic
A respectable, intelligent but less than stirring adaptation of an imposingly dense and layered novel.
01/29/08
Top Critic
Gorgeous looking and achingly romantic literary adaptation that showcases expert performances by Fiennes and Scott Thomas.
01/29/08
The sand seems to drench the actors in deep golden light; the sky is a rich, muted blue, like a still and suspended sea.
07/30/07
This is the real thing, and real things don't come along very often, so you'd better snap them up when they do.
02/10/07
Top Critic
Fiennes is solid, if occasionally a little remote, as the dashing man of action. But Kristin Scott Thomas is the film's revelation.
02/05/07
For all the film's effectiveness as a love story, I often felt I was being hurried through a busy itinerary.
02/05/07
Top Critic
Top Critic
Among many achievements, John Seal's strikingly precise photography draws contrast, which is significant in the text, between sensual imagery of the adulterous affair between Fiennes and Scott Thomas and jarring images of desert wartime brutality.
08/02/06
Needless to say, the performances are flawless; more surprising is the fluency, poetry and scale of Minghella's direction.
01/26/06
It's a sweeping romance with many good aspects, but not enough to justify the time you spend watching.
04/09/05
Yes, it's beautifully shot, well-acted, and rich with history lessons. But how can we cheer for heroes who sell out their friends and nation for an extramarital affair?
01/15/05
This is a very sad movie, indeed -- but one filled with cinematic artistry.
07/27/04
As the sensitive Hana, Binoche delivers one of the most incandescent performances I've ever had the pleasure to watch.
07/21/04
It's Casablanca set amid the swirling Sahara sands of North Africa and the voluptuous hills of Tuscany.
07/06/04
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The English Patient rules!!! :)
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