Painfully in Love

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2004)

"The English Patient" is, without a doubt, one of the saddest films that I have ever seen. That's not to say that this is a bad film. It is just that the film deals with painful love. The kind of love that can destroy those around you as well as yourself. Juliette Binoche (Her incredible beauty stole the film, as well as the Oscar), plays Hana, a nurse toward the end of WWII who is in charge of a patient, who is horribly burned in a plane crash. Hana, who is deeply hurting from losing a loved one (friends and lovers seem to die around her, making her feel cursed)sets up shop in a villa and cares for the mysterious patient. The patient, Count Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), is actually holding a lot of secrets, including an affair with Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas), whose husband (Colin Firth) works for the war effort. Almasy's and Katherine's affair starts a spark that slowing begins to destroy everything and everyone around them. It happens so gradually that no one sees it until it's too late.
In the course of the movie, lives change. Hana begins a relationship with Kip (Naveen Andrews) while at the villa, while a mysterious man named Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) is having conversations with the patient...who know exactly who he is and what secrets he is holding.
The film is a beauty to behold. The colors, the scenery, the acting, is very beautiful. The film will have you in tears (especially the end), so please have tissues in hand.