One of the most overrated romance movies of all time

Rating: 2/10 (9 March 2001)

TEP is basically a passionate love story full of interesting and realistic characters which is never told. The acting is good. No one can deny that, but all the good acting in the world couldn't save this movie. There are essentially four stories going on at any time during the movie: the flashbacks of a dying man, his relationship with the woman who is caring for him, a nurse's attempt to love someone without them dying, and a man with no thumbs looking to get revenge for what happened to him. There is just too much going on in this movie. None of the stories are ever resolved very well. It is almost as if the director was just getting into the movie when he realized that it was already over three hours long and tried to wrap everything up very quickly. The only real romance in the film comes in the form of flashbacks to an almost comical affair between Ralf Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas. The first love scene, which is supposed to be one of those angry/passionate sex scenes, ends up looking like a botched up rape. The nudity is almost tacky and lacks any artistic value. Even the shots of the desert, which were really nice at first, got old after the first two and a half hours. I rated it a two. Very Unimpressive.