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Critics Consensus: Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving.
Critic Consensus: Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving.
All Critics (80) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (13) | DVD (8)
Its wit, sophistication and artistry never are at odds with the fundamental pull of a powerful love story that out-Zhivagos Doctor Zhivago because it respects love's mysteries, admits it doesn't know the heart's boundaries.
It took a filmmaker with Anthony Minghella's vision to even attempt an adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. And it took a filmmaker with Minghella's talent to pull it off.
Could this possibly be the Casablanca of the late 20th century?
It's the sort of solemn production that is often mentioned as an Academy Award contender.This says less about the quality of the film than it does about its self-consciously lofty tone and its sense of self-importance.
It's a tragically lovely story about the cruel devastation of selfish and ungoverned love. It's also one of the best movies in a long, long time.
The film is a smashing success on its own terms, though as a transcendent love story it lacks the firm foundation in human reality that characterizes Lars Von Trier's superior Breaking the Waves.
...a beautiful film. [Full Review in Spanish]
Relentlessly beautiful, but not quite stupifyingly so
Probably untranslatable to the screen. The English Patient is a noble try. But still a bore.
It is, after all, quite a lot of movie, two hours and 42 minutes' worth, and the more movie you have, the greater the chances that not all of it will work equally well.
Anthony Minghella believes in ghosts -- and, at his best, makes believers out of viewers, too.
It's an ambitious film and director Anthony Minghella's skill lies equally in his screenplay, which delivers explanation only in fragments but keeps us involved for what is an epic running time.
The kind of overlong and self-important epic-scale drama that seems tailor-made to win every award for its outstanding visuals, performances, make-up and editing, but which suffers from an excess of characters and subplots while lacking in focus and meaning.
Super Reviewer
Excellent, moving film. Fiennes can do no wrong. This is one of the few films in which I appreciated Willen Defoe's acting.
The English Patient is a film that I really want to enjoy. Unfortunately, I really couldn't get into the story. I do enjoy a good drama/romance, but Unfortunately this one simply just didn't do it for me. I applaud the acting, as I thought there was good performances here. Unfortunately I didn't very much enjoy the film. I didn't see what the hype was about. I thought the film was quite boring with good acting. I really wanted to get into this, but simply couldn't. For me the greatest romance of all is Casablanca. Everything else seems to be derivative. The English Patient is pretty boring, don't get me wrong, I love films that take time to develop its story, but this film could be much shorter. I felt that the film dragged on, and took far too long to get to the point. Unfortunately this films performances can't save this turkey. Sure people will say this is a sweeping romantic epic, but I thought it was a dud. Like I previously stated, there is only one true romance film, Casablanca. That film is a real classic. However I can't say the same for this film. This film tried too hard at manipulating your emotions and it just didn't work, at least not for me. I felt that The English Patient was a film too wrapped up in its romantic storyline, and it simply jerked your chain to try an sweep you off your feet. I wasn't impressed with this and felt this was a mediocre film with great acting.
Based on the book of the same name, The English Patient is a sweeping drama that is complex, moving, and very powerful. It's breathtakingly shot, and the score by Gabriel Yared is one of the most beautiful I've ever heard. Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas give emotional, powerful performances as well.
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