The English Patient: 1996

So The English Patient is another Miramax film, meaning Harvey Weinstein worked on it as a producer. I tried not to let that color my experience watching the film, and I think it's fairly safe to say it didn't. What did affect my viewing was the Seinfeld episode where Elaine expresses her hatred of the movie (how it was just soooo boring). After watching the rather long film, I can see why Elaine hated it--it's a true romance with a sad ending. If you're interested in reading more about Elaine, Seinfeld, and The English Patient, check out this Vanity Fair article published in 2016.

I found the film fine. It was one of those films where I was impressed with the cinematography but found the characters dull. The story comes down to a woman who seems bored in her marriage (she married her childhood best friend) finds a man who seems so distant and different from her husband as crazy attractive (enter Ralph Fiennes). Adultery is committed, she dies, he's gravely injured, and oh, he colludes with the Germans during WWII in an attempt to save her (which is quite hopeless by the point he does it). Their story didn't really interest me all that much, but thankfully the film had multiple storylines, with this love story functioning as a flashback. I was more interested in following Juliette Binoche's character, the Canadian nurse who cares for the English Patient (the injured and nearly unrecognizable Ralph Fiennes), because her story follows the end of the war. Her desire to save people because of all those she's lost made her a more interesting character, but since she wasn't the focus of the film, her character didn't develop as fully as I would have liked.

The most impressive part of the film was the make-up. Here's Ralph Fiennes before the plane crash:

And after:

The most impressive part is as the present day storyline progresses, his wounds slowly change as he's healing. It was subtle but effective. The change in his appearance wasn't the only indication of time changing, but it was a detail that wasn't overlooked, which made the film seem more authentic.

I'm not Elaine--I didn't hate The English Patient--but I'm not J. Peterman, either--it's not the best film I've ever seen. This one falls in the middle for me.