Nice Visuals, But Another Overrated Oscar Winner

Rating: 5/10 (6 June 2006)

I did give this film several shots. I just couldn't like it, but I really tried. The cinematography I enjoyed with all viewings, especially the scenes in which they flew over beautiful sand dunes. However, midway through the story it bogs down in this adulterous love affair between Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas. It picks ups slightly, but never really recovered. In both viewings, I wound up counting down the time left in the film. It's basically a woman's movie.
As a man, I enjoyed watching the beautiful Juliette Binoche, who plays a nurse who takes care of the burned Fiennes, whose scarred body, frankly, is interesting to view. Binoche has an affair with an Indian man and the highlight of that romance is when he hoists her aloft on a harness to see paintings high up on a church wall.
Fiennes, Thomas and Willem Dafoe all played unlikeable characters to me and didn't make the film worth giving it a third look. As I said, I tried.....and I was hardly alone. Of about a half-dozen friends I discussed this film with, I don't know one person who liked it. I was actually kinder towards it than most. Once again, we see an example of a modern-day movie that Academy Awards voted "Picture Of the Year" and most of the public disliked. The public, as usual, was a better judge.