THE ENGLISH PATIENT. Directed & written by Anthony Minghella; produced by Saul Zaentz for Miramax. Starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe and Naveen Andrews. Rated R (nudity, sex, violence, language)
More reviews by —
TITLE:
RATING:
"Intellectual tear-jerker" sounds like an oxymoron ranking right up there with low-fat fudge. But that's just what The English Patient is.
It's a romantic story of breathtaking scope and emotional power. But, rather than the easily-forgotten froth that passes for romance in most movies, this one seems more soulful, more tragic—in short, much better—the more you think about it and reflect on what you've seen.
Set in Italy at the end of World War II and in Egypt just before the war begins (one of the movie's intellectual pleasures is this bouncing back and forth from time to time—it keeps you on your toes!) the story concerns a group of people as damaged by the war as the abandoned villa they inhabit. And as fascinating and moving as the story is, the performances are just as good.
Hana (Binoche) is a Canadian nurse from whom the war has taken much, but who retains a childlike sweetness that contrasts with her brisk efficiency at her job. She falls in love with Kip, (Andrews) an equally efficient, and childlike (when off-duty), bomb-disposal expert who has plenty of work to do with all the mines the retreating Germans left in the countryside.
Dafoe is a mysterious figure who appears at the villa intent, it seems, upon unmasking Hana's only patient (the one in the title). Fiennes plays the severly burned invalid, who's not recognizable in the movie's "present," but whom we learn much about, in a satisfyingly roundabout way, through flash-backs.
In the flashbacks we see Thomas, too, as the English patient's lover before the war, and these scenes are the heart of the picture. Fiennes gets to play the romantic part here that I always thought he had in him, but he retains that air of tragic mystery that makes him so interesting to watch. And Thomas, who was so amusing in Four Weddings and a Funeral, proves to be good at melodrama as well.
Not for all tastes, perhaps, but with enough intrigue and cinematic grandeur to appeal even to moviegoers who usually pass up love stories, The English Patient is certainly one of the best films I've seen this year. I liked watching it, thinking about it afterwards (for days, too, and not just hours) and I'm planning to like seeing it again. I can't say that about too many movies, can you?