The Chinese Patient

Rating: 4/10 (19 January 2003)

Take two tenuously related plots in two different foreign locales, start with one, then splice in scenes from the other at random, add artsy photography and some viewers will assume it is art because they can't figure out what the heck is going on and don't want to admit it. Hey, it worked for the English Patient, and it apparently fooled some reviewers are viewers with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Me, I don't even understand the title.
On the positive side, it was a truly great movie for the first five minutes. The rest should be viewed as National Geographic cinematography. Viewed on my laptop's DVD player the color looked especially beautiful. And the flying effects were extraordinary. If I might make a suggestion, perhaps Ang Lee should make a remake of Peter Pan. Seriously. He got the sense of fantasy down pretty good in this movie. He just needed a better plot, or perhaps running the two plots the movie contains sequentially, rather than on shuffle play.