grand romantic epic

Rating: 7/10 (25 October 2014)

A badly disfigured man suffering from amnesia is brought in to the Allies by the Bedouins. Canadian nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) has lost many friends including her love. It's near the end of WWII. She brings the dying man to an abandoned Italian mansion to take care of by herself. She is joined by Allied soldier Kip Singh (Naveen Andrews) and David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) who claims to know the man from before. The movie flashes back from time to time. The mysterious man is Hungarian map maker Count Laszlo de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) on an expedition to chart the Sahara desert for the Royal Geographical Society. He is joined by Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth) and his wife Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas) on the expedition.
This is an old fashion grand romantic epic. The story is vast like the desert and winding like all great romances. The acting is brilliant by so many great actors. The desert looks hypnotic. It does lack a drive to push the story along its extended running time. At times, the movie goes too slowly. I wonder if the movie would be better without so much back and forth in time.