Just a distant memory

Rating: 5/10 (9 May 1999)

The one word that springs to mind in describing this film is 'indifferent'. It is beautiful to look at, just like Scott-Thomas, but also like Scott-Thomas at its centre it seems a cold-hearted passionless affair. Perhaps the main reason for this is that the grandiose love story is told through a series of flashbacks as the Fiennes character 'regains' his memory. Minghella has opted to tell the story through memories, trying to induce the romantic notion of a timeless love by setting it in another land and another time. We never actually meet Katharine Clifton, the aim of this probably being to create a woman unflawed by reality - a fantasy that exists only in our dreams. The only purpose of the 'present day' story seems to be to offset the flashbacks as ethereal and other-worldly. This is where the problem lies - the flashbacks do come off as distant memories, the sort of memories that bring a sad smile to your face as you remember something special but doomed but without reliving any of the strong feelings associated with the events themselves! The photography and the music are exceptional but Minghella comes across as a David Lean wannabe. Everything about this film is understatement, and this was never a characteristic that could be associated with Lean or the classic cinema The English Patient aspires to be. To just write off this film would be wrong - it does have many appreciable qualities, but a rip-roaring romance it is not. Not that it was ever intended to be, but perhaps it should have been.