The English Patient (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
Horribly burned in a plane crash (and with no apparent memory), a doomed patient tries to recall who he is, everything leading up to the flight, why he was flying the plane, & the eventual crash. Epic in scale, but intimate in character portrayals, 'The English Patient' (directed by Anthony Minghella), involves a passionate, but fateful love affair btwn. a married British woman & an arrogant Count from Hungary. It juggles a labyrinthine plot, a plethora of intriguing characters & revelatory flashbacks. Some fat could have been trimmed here & there (length-wise). But overall, 'The English Patient' is one Hell of a movie -- powerful, mystifying & grand. It's also one that should hold up & improve on repeat viewings. Its layers are practically infinite.
This film is laid out in an odd, but brilliant elliptical structure; opening with the same scene that it ends with, & filling in the blanks throughout the course of the films interior. The first scene shows a British plane being shot down over the North African desert during WWII - striking imagery, here. The pilot is Count Laszlo Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast stretches of the Sahara Desert. Terribly burned (and with lethal internal wounds), he is transported to Italy & cared for by Hana (Juliette Binoche), a sad, shell-shocked Canadian nurse who takes it upon herself to help him. Together, they occupy an abandoned monastery; where she injects him with copious amounts of morphine. At his request, she reads to him from a book that includes some of his own writings & photos. Hana thinks this could stimulate his memory.
Meanwhile, others begin to populate their 'home' - Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), a cynical war veteran, & Kip (Naveen Andrews), a Sikh bomb expert. Caravaggio is missing his thumbs, & thinks that the burn patient's amnesia is a lie. Caravaggio's motives only become clear once the mystery surrounding Count Almasy starts to unfold itself like a peeled onion. Kip is a disciplined, likeable guy who Hana finds herself falling for. But her tendency to fall in love with casualties of war (& the fact that he's a bomb expert, for God sakes) worries her. She remarks, "I must be a curse. Anybody who loves me - who gets close to me - is killed". Eventually, through foggy dreams & sketchy flashbacks, Almasy begins to remember events that lead up to his plane crash. Years ago, while surveying the Sahara, he meets Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas), wife of a respected pilot (Colin Firth) who's also helping with the map project. Almasy & Katharine fall madly in love. And this sets the stage for a story ripe with love, betrayal, mystery, war politics & tragedy.
Though the film is long & the pace could have been tightened up, there is much to admire. The performances are riveting, the camerawork & period details are superb, Gabriel Yared's romantic music simply soars, & the screenplay is intelligent. The complex story, based from a best-selling novel, is sprawling; crisscrossing subplots, timelines, characters & their motivations. Minghella makes it not only comprehensible, but immersive, as well. Ralph Fiennes plays the stoic, but romantic type well. We go along on this exhilarating, but tumultuous ride with him. Kristin Scott Thomas is captivating as the smart, steely, aristocratic Katharine; her zest for life makes her irresistible to Almasy. Their powerful affair keeps the story moving. And Juliette Binoche is exceptional as the heavy-hearted Hana; struggling to keep everyone's spirits afloat amid the misery. I'll never forget when Kip shows Hana some frescos on the ceiling of a nearby church. Her simultaneous joy & sadness is evident in this one elegiac scene.
There's just something about this film that lingers with you after it's over; haunts you; beckons for you to return to it. Not all of it works, mind you. But while I wouldn't want to re-watch it right away, it IS the type of movie I'd want to re-experience again & again. I lost myself in 'The English Patient'; whether it was in the images, the intimacy of these people's lives, or the multi-layered story -- it generates that power. This is a movie of many 'moments'. i.e., a scene involving a bomb & a piano, Hana playing hopscotch by herself, Caravaggio's nightlong chat with Almasy, & an aerial shot of the plane before its crash, etc.. Some of these characters are good, some bad, some both. They're all from different parts of the globe. And yet, there's a common thread to all of them. 'The English Patient' allowed me to visit places I'd never seen and witness universal emotions of hope, despair & courage.
This film is laid out in an odd, but brilliant elliptical structure; opening with the same scene that it ends with, & filling in the blanks throughout the course of the films interior. The first scene shows a British plane being shot down over the North African desert during WWII - striking imagery, here. The pilot is Count Laszlo Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast stretches of the Sahara Desert. Terribly burned (and with lethal internal wounds), he is transported to Italy & cared for by Hana (Juliette Binoche), a sad, shell-shocked Canadian nurse who takes it upon herself to help him. Together, they occupy an abandoned monastery; where she injects him with copious amounts of morphine. At his request, she reads to him from a book that includes some of his own writings & photos. Hana thinks this could stimulate his memory.
Meanwhile, others begin to populate their 'home' - Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), a cynical war veteran, & Kip (Naveen Andrews), a Sikh bomb expert. Caravaggio is missing his thumbs, & thinks that the burn patient's amnesia is a lie. Caravaggio's motives only become clear once the mystery surrounding Count Almasy starts to unfold itself like a peeled onion. Kip is a disciplined, likeable guy who Hana finds herself falling for. But her tendency to fall in love with casualties of war (& the fact that he's a bomb expert, for God sakes) worries her. She remarks, "I must be a curse. Anybody who loves me - who gets close to me - is killed". Eventually, through foggy dreams & sketchy flashbacks, Almasy begins to remember events that lead up to his plane crash. Years ago, while surveying the Sahara, he meets Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas), wife of a respected pilot (Colin Firth) who's also helping with the map project. Almasy & Katharine fall madly in love. And this sets the stage for a story ripe with love, betrayal, mystery, war politics & tragedy.
Though the film is long & the pace could have been tightened up, there is much to admire. The performances are riveting, the camerawork & period details are superb, Gabriel Yared's romantic music simply soars, & the screenplay is intelligent. The complex story, based from a best-selling novel, is sprawling; crisscrossing subplots, timelines, characters & their motivations. Minghella makes it not only comprehensible, but immersive, as well. Ralph Fiennes plays the stoic, but romantic type well. We go along on this exhilarating, but tumultuous ride with him. Kristin Scott Thomas is captivating as the smart, steely, aristocratic Katharine; her zest for life makes her irresistible to Almasy. Their powerful affair keeps the story moving. And Juliette Binoche is exceptional as the heavy-hearted Hana; struggling to keep everyone's spirits afloat amid the misery. I'll never forget when Kip shows Hana some frescos on the ceiling of a nearby church. Her simultaneous joy & sadness is evident in this one elegiac scene.
There's just something about this film that lingers with you after it's over; haunts you; beckons for you to return to it. Not all of it works, mind you. But while I wouldn't want to re-watch it right away, it IS the type of movie I'd want to re-experience again & again. I lost myself in 'The English Patient'; whether it was in the images, the intimacy of these people's lives, or the multi-layered story -- it generates that power. This is a movie of many 'moments'. i.e., a scene involving a bomb & a piano, Hana playing hopscotch by herself, Caravaggio's nightlong chat with Almasy, & an aerial shot of the plane before its crash, etc.. Some of these characters are good, some bad, some both. They're all from different parts of the globe. And yet, there's a common thread to all of them. 'The English Patient' allowed me to visit places I'd never seen and witness universal emotions of hope, despair & courage.