The English Patient (1996)

Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/47/Eng-patient-mov-poster.jpg

Movie #14: The English Patient (1996)
Oscar wins: 9- Best Picture, Best Director (Minghella), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Binoche), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score (Gabriel Yared), Best Sound
Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Fiennes), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Scott Thomas), Best Adapted Screenplay (Minghella)
Directed by: Anthony Minghella
Written by: Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Naveen Andrews
Length: 162 minutes
Budget: unknown

Thanks to this film, I have officially fallen off pace. It was very hard for me to struggle through the almost three hours of this film. Although beautiful, it was also very dull and slow.

The English Patient is the story of a nurse (Binoche) who cares for a mysterious patient (Fiennes), who seems to have lost his memory. Through flashbacks, we learn of his past, his love affair (with Scott Thomas), and his military efforts. We also see a man from his past come back into his life (Dafoe), and his nurse fall in love and struggle in post-World War II Italy.

This film was a beautiful film-- amazing scenery, shots, effects, sound, and acting. However, overall it seemed very dull to me, with a story that wasn't anything special and characters that I struggled to care for. Everyone in the film gives an amazing performance, but the script really fell short, in my opinion. I purchased the book and had planned on reading it, but if it is anything like this dragging three-hour flick, I won't be reading it any time soon.

At the 69th Oscars, The English Patient really swept up all of the art and technical awards, and Juliette Binoche won a deserved Best Supporting Actress award (however, I would argue the fact that she was given supporting and Kristin Scott Thomas was nominated for leading). And then, of course, the film also won Best Picture, and Anthony Minghella won Best Director. I would argue, however, that this was not the best film of 1996; to me, that was Fargo. Clearly, 15 years later, Fargo has had more of an impact on cinema, and has really handled the test of time, while The English Patient has really fallen into the unknown. Who knows, maybe at the time I would have felt differently, like the Academy clearly did.

Well, I finally got this film over with. Now it's on to Braveheart, which I'm not really too excited for...

Rankings:
1. American Beauty (1999)
2. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
3. Chicago (2002)
4. Titanic (1997)
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
6. The Departed (2006)
7. No Country for Old Men (2007)
8. The Hurt Locker (2009)
9. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
10. The Gladiator (2000)
11. Crash (2005)
12 Shakespeare in Love (1998)
13 The English Patient (1996)
14. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)