"Ownership. I hate being owned. " - Almasy (Ralph Fiennes)

Rating: 8/10 (22 November 2005)

I remember getting ready to watch this Best Picture Winner with a lot of doubts. The reason is because a while back they did an episode of 'Seinfeld' where Elaine is forced to go see this movie with her boss Peterman, and she almost dies of boredom. That being established, you can see how much skepticism I had towards this movie without even watching it. My mother, who had viewed the movie about two years earlier, kept telling me how great it was. So, I decided to suck it up and watch the film. I was kind of glad I did, but at the same time not so glad. 'The English Patient' is a great motion picture, but just like the 'Seinfeld' episode said it had the tendency to put you right to sleep.
First of all, the film is 162 minutes (2 hrs., 42 mins.) long. It didn't go by fast, in fact it felt like over three hours. However, as bored as I was with 'The English Patient' at times there was no use denying it was a great film. The cinematography and direction were beautiful, the dialogue was solid, the costume design and makeup were spot-on, and the acting was incredible with four strong performances from Ralph Fiennes, Kristen Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews and the brilliant Willem Dafoe, and an absolutely extraordinary performance from Ms. Juliette Binoche which rightfully earned her an Academy Award in the 1997 Oscar ceremonies.
If you suck it up and decide to see 'The English Patient', I think you'll be able to greatly appreciate it. It moves slow, but the film is filled with such beauty and excellent qualities that in a way it doesn't matter. In other words, 'The English Patient' is a film you watch once and only once just to see how wonderful a motion picture it is. I would definitely NOT recommend watching it more than once, in fear it may result in a deep coma for the viewer. Grade: B+