There is no question that our culture adores love stories. Romance novels crowd our bookstore shelves and romance films, from the good "Jerry Maguire" to the pitiful "Black Day, Blue Night," stake their claims at the cineplexes. Where then would we find art that is both sublime romance and piercing study of the human condition?
Look no further. "The English Patient" is that film and more. Along with "Fargo" and "Lone Star," this film is one of the three best films of the year, and one of the 10 best films of the decade.
Passionate, sumptuous, and epic, "The English Patient" is a breathtaking update of the movie-going experiences of the past.
As the titles roll over a candle-lit parchment where a delicate hand paints a swimming figure, you know that you are seeing something special. From a plane flying high above the desert with a woman's snow-white scarf rippling from the canopy to a drive through the Italian countryside, every scene is gorgeous, every set is heavenly, each frame a painting.
At its heart, "The English Patient" is a romance. It is the story of the illicit affair between Count Laszlo de Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), an explorer of the Sahara, and Katherine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), the wife of one of Almasy's friends.
This affair takes place in the past. In the present, Almasy is the charred and broken victim of a plane crash. He does not have much longer to live so an empathetic nurse named Hana (Juliette Binoche) takes him to an abandoned monastery to live out his last days.
As Hana reads to Almasy, he begins to remember his life in the desert. Soon, however, their peace is disturbed when a thief with a hidden agenda arrives at their Italian monastery.
He is Caravaggio, played by Willem Dafoe. He questions the patient about his life, which prompts Almasy to remember even more of his past.
The Italy in the film is in the twilight of World War II. Just like the landscapes of our lives, this Italy is gorgeous but broken, full of history and beauty but with potential hazards around every turn, as the Italians have left mines in the wake of their retreat.
Enter Kip (Naveen Andrews), an Indian mine sweeper who finds a mine under a piano Hana is playing.
In the present, all four of these lives converge. Caravaggio urges Almasy's memory, Hana cares for Almasy, and Kip and Hana fall in love. Caravaggio's life is also linked to Almasy's past in Africa. These relationships ring of truth and are deeply intertwined.
All of these complexities are given proper attention in the film. Nothing of their characters is left out, and each one is a real, three-dimensional person. Credit is due to the actors. As a collaborative ensemble, they are top rate.
Fiennes is at times understated, at times grandiose, but always riveting. Thomas is pure passion, refinement, sex, and intelligence, an unusual combination that no other actress could pull off quite so perfectly. Dafoe takes a step away from his typical role and succeeds, while Andrews, a new face, holds his own with style.
Binoche is simply luminous as Hana. Her innocence, tenderness, and carefree spirit is the film's most endearing performance.
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the movie, however, is Anthony Minghella's, the director and writer of the film.
He takes a highly acclaimed and supposedly impossible-to-film novel by Michael Ondaatje and turns it into cinematic art. Clearly, Minghella's task was not enviable. His work, however, is.
The movie is full of cinematic magic from an amazing sandstorm that signals a fiery affair to the defusing of a bomb as tanks roll overhead.
Most of all, Minghella masterfully avoids allowing his film to become sappy romantic drivel. He knows when to be majestic and when to be intimate.
He perfectly contrasts the present with the haze of memory. Katherine and Almasy's affair is filmed in sumptuous colors and textures and is allowed to be over the top simply because it is a part of memory.
Kip and Hana's affair, on the other hand, is filmed more drably and realistically, and their relationship is never perfect.
This film is a true success. It comes together so well, including the marvelous score, that all you can do is sit back and let yourself be hypnotized.
