"The English Patient" (1996) - Movie Review

I do not know why I am not able to attach myself to the soap operatic romantic movies. I was neither mystified by the secrecy and follow through of “The Constant Gardener” nor the mesmerizing eyes as beloved by many of Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall”. And in “The English Patient” it is better though and far appealing than the two I mentioned. Handful of good performances, crispy clean editing, breath taking cinematography and nice moody Hungarian songs make this a good movie.

During those final scenes, I can imagine how much the people who got them into this long movie to tear down and cry. If I am able to think like that when the scenes are running, then you can conclude about my reaction towards it, indifferent. Why do reasonable people always act on instincts which they are fully aware of the heart breaking consequences? Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) knows the involuntary forces acting upon him towards the married Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas). He is the stern and silent explorer of the remains in the mystic lands of Egypt. Egypt is filled with history and at the time of Second World War, he along with his colleagues dwindle them with the mysteries and secrecies of ancient history. As a shadowed finger smothers the pores of the old hardened paper giving birth to a figure and the frame shifts to the vast spread desert, John Seale is visible in his cinematography and the editing of Walter Murch shows up.

This is a class act of a crew determined to fight for a master piece. The hard work is there. I can see there everything the material portrayed have something to it. Usually I will be able to see the puppet characters stick into its two dimensions i.e. faking cannot be faked to me. There are wonderful visuals and the human idiosyncrasies which I can say are there without fallacies. This is the second movie in a row in which the persons in the screen did not come out of it, in this week (first being “Band of Outsiders”). I see them as people in the movie. I can see the border of my Television, strange to stare the border of it while a movie is running, unless it misses something. I am still hunting the way through to capture where I was lost by the film. It is half way through the review, so there are couple of more paragraphs before I come down to it.

The movie is whopping 160 minutes and it cannot be noticed. Almásy is a riddle to his colleagues. “You speak so many bloody languages, and you never want to talk.” Says Katharine. The conversation over their drive when Katharine sits beside is witty and sees two notions of Almásy. One of course is his nature and other being to overcome the attraction towards her. He knows things are not right with her being out there. He even asks her husband Geoffrey (Colin Firth) why he is not taking her along with him to a short summon to a near by place. And when Almásy leaves her at the destination and asked to come, he denies and replies “Mrs. Clifton” strongly to remind her and him of the reality in front of them. The attraction for Almásy makes sense and his sensibility are reasonable but was not able to completely understand Katherine. But may be she confused friendship for love with her child hood companion Geoffrey or it passed away when she really meet her other perfect match, Almásy. Well then in that case everyone never marries their perfect match but that is not marriage. It is the art of abiding the differences and pave way to respect the harmony in understanding it. Katharine seems to not think that way. This void might be one reason for its loosened departure with me. Still not good enough.

Almásy with last few days in pain due to his burn goes back to those days of clandestine happiness he had. In the present day which is the end of Second World War he is been nursed in a monastery by nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche). She lost her love and in Almásy, she sees some comfort and duty. She says it is her job, but there are things absorbed and bedraggled in the good will and in her responsibility. She develops a heart for the sapper Kip (Naveen Andrews). A mystery man of sarcastic tone, David Carravagio (Willem Dafoe) comes with a mission of his own. There is suspense which I was never eager to learn. They do not create the sense of being restless not knowing what happened. We ride along patiently and steadily to look into the past of Almásy when he wants to reveal.

This is my last paragraph and I need to come to a conclusion on the target missed by the movie over me. Hardly thinking and writing about it till now, the time spent and the positives came out of it is self explanatory over the state of my mind. I am clear on the incomplete explanations and the indifferent reaction it leaves me. I guess for all these paragraphs, I was denying saying it aloud. I liked a soap operatic movie which did not strike me. It behaved true to its content to be a watchable flick. There you go, I said it.