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The English PatientRating:
Release Date: 15 January, 2002 Retail Price: $19.99 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (15 total) |
The English Patient Reviews
Kristen Scott-Thomas pulled through!
I heard distubring rumors that the filming of the movie nearly came to a halt because Kristen Scott-Thomas did not rank very highly with audiences, that the director was actually pressured into replacing her with Michelle Pfeifer. Let me tell you, I am soooo thankful that Kristen Scott-Thomas ended up playing the female lead. It takes a strong English actress with a background in Shakespearean theater to play such a dramatic role.
best English film of the 90s
To me, the film's most compelling theme is how Almasy's personal determination to keep his promise to the injured Kathryn has tragic political implications, notably for his partner Maddox and for the spy/thief David Caravaggio. Moving deftly back and forth in time, the narrative pulls a whole group of interesting characters into the web of "the English patient," tracing cause and effect through episodes of love, danger, and death. The performances are exceptional, with Ralph Fiennes at his brooding, intense best and the beautiful Juliette Binoche full of spunky life but also vulnerable angst. My only complaint concerns how Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) seems on the verge of confronting/killing Almasy (Fiennes) several times in a rather unconnected manner. It provides opportunities to drive forward the plot in the past but seems a little incoherent in terms of the "present" plotline. Only in his one major--and quite harrowing--flashback sequence does Caravaggio really come to life for me. But that's a minor quibble in the face of such a brilliantly developed film. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the romantic score by Gabriel Yared adds a great deal of poignancy, particularly at the very end when we finally understand the full significance of the film's opening image. I love, too, the final contrasting cuts between Amashy's doomed flight and Hannah's sunlit trip toward an unknown future. It's the yin and yang of past and present, destruction and possibility. Two types of viewers should avoid this film: philistines who identify with rather than laugh at Elaine and simple-minded cultural conservatives (who apparently miss the fact that illicit passion leads to dire consequences in this film).
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