A disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (23 February 1999)

I entered this film expecting a work of genius, so perhaps one of the reasons I found it mediocre was that I had such high expectations of it. However, my problem with the film goes beyond its length, it relates more closely to the way the characters in the film were developed. Anyone who's read the book knows that "The English Patient" has little to do with the actual English patient, and more to do with Hana, the French Canadian nurse attempting to recuperate from the war. It is in her relationships with the people surrounding her that is the true heart of the story, but Hana's character was left sadly unexplored in this film. The importance of her relationship with Kip (and Kip's character) suffered most greatly in the translation from the page onto film, and it was a shame that the audience lost much of the original point of the story.