The BIG Movie of 1996 Seems a Lot Smaller in 2009

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2009)

The movie that blew everyone away in 1996, and a rare "arthouse" film that managed to cross over into the mainstream.
I admit that I was swept up in the "English Patient" craze along with everyone else. But I have seen parts of it more recently and have to say that it doesn't hold up well. What seemed passionate and sincere at the time seems overwrought and silly now. The love story between Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas is the stuff of romantic melodrama, pure soap opera, but the historical backdrop of WWII makes it feel more important than it really is. On later viewings, I just wanted to tell these two overly-dramatic lovers to lighten up.
The best thing about the film now is the thing that was best about it when it originally appeared, and that's Juliette Binoche, playing a weary and emotionally haunted nurse who gradually learns how to live and love again. Her performance is luminous and lovely, and I would much rather watch a movie just about her.
Grade: B