Romancing the desert. Review on The English Patient Movie

The English Patient…It’s six years old already and has won nine Oscars, which include Best Film and Best Director. Even after all these years it still retains it’s romantic allure and certainly merits a viewing by the big screen.

The English Patient adapted from Michael Ondaatje’s Booker prize-winning novel, adds up to a poignant love story as well as an effective anti war statement.

The Patient in question is an amnesiac burn victim who’s breathing his last in an Italian monastery near towards the end of world war two. He’s under the care of a French Canadian nurse accompanied by an allied agent. The patient spills out his memories of the days he spent in the North African desert. It turns out that he isn’t English at all. In fact, he’s a Hungarian count who was obsessively in love with married women. Boy, have we all had our obsessive moments we someone that we love? The illicit affair that the both have is doomed from the outset, leaving the count morally scarred and psychologically shattered.

The best part of the film concerns the chemistry between the infatuated count and the women who’s as intelligent as she is beautiful.

But despite some reservations on this film it is a triumph of technical craftsmanship, a sturdy narrative and a fine ensemble of performances. Both the lead artists are thoroughly lifelike in this must see picture.