Review of The English Patient (1996) by Ken C — 12 Feb 2011

It's not perfect but it's still sad, well acted, and entertaining. I surprisingly wasn't bothered by the length, I mean sure some scenes went on for too long and weren't really neccesary like at the beginning when the friend explodes (spoiler!) but it seemed just right to me. I was about to fall asleep towards the end but the movie quickly ended before I could shut my eyes, so really if you plan ahead when you will start watching it it should be ok and not too long.

I already said that this was well acted but with that said I didn't really think the love interest put enough effort into her role, and Ralph Fiennes was over doing it at some parts and that kind of took away any emotion that was in the scene that they were in. But Willem Dafoe, Collin Firth and everybody else was great, and is it me or is Collin Firth always playing a tormented, suicidal person in every movie he's in? Either that or he always plays someone with some kind of problem.

The scenery is what steals the show. It's practically the main character of the movie and it makes up for any flaw or bothersome part that you encountered earlier. My favorite part would have to be when there caught in the middle of a sand storm and they have to hide in the car for the rest of the night, I don't know something about that scene makes me feel cozy and comfortable to be around these people. It was also really sad at the end when Ralph traveled for three days trying to find a doctor for his girlfriend but the German Soldiers wouldn't give him a lift so he started to lose his cool and....actually I don't want to spoil anything else.

For what i've heard this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the book with the exception of one or two scenes that turn out to be the most suspenseful scenes in the movie, and that's kind of weird. Why would you have it say in the opening credits that it's based on a book when it's not based on a book? They did the same thing with RED when they advertised that the movie was based on a DC comic book when it literally...LIERALLY has nothing absolutely nothing to do with the comic other than the title. Why would they do that, that makes no sense.

Overall a really great, lengthly epic that's well worth checking out if you got some time on your hands.