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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

English Patient, The
Miramax Films


6.4

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 35 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for sexuality, some violence and language

Starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, and Colin Firth

An epic film of adventure, intrigue, betrayal and love about four strangers whose diverse lives become inextricably connected. (Miramax Films)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Anthony Minghella Michael Ondaatje (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Anthony Minghella
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 24, 1998 Video: March 24, 1998 Theatrical: November 15, 1996
RUNNING TIME:	160 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Awash in heart-rending emotions and gorgeous images, this is a movie to lose yourself in.

100

Film.com Sean Means

It feels like a dream that a movie could have this kind of poetic grace and epic sweep, or could be so faithful to its source and still work so perfectly as a film.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Rising to crescendos of emotion usually reached only by tenors and sopranos, these characters are the beneficiaries of the luminous writing of the novel and screenplay as well as the expert performances of the actors, especially Scott Thomas.

100

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A tour de force so haunting that other films can't exorcise the memory of its radiant cast, exquisite craftsmanship or complex system of metaphors. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a movie.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

A mesmerizing film that is the most stunning, tempestuous love story in a decade or two of movie making.

100

Time Richard Corliss

To transport picturegoers to a unique place in the glare of the earth, in the darkness of the heart--this, you realize with a gasp of joy, is what movies can do.

100

The Onion (A.V. Club) John Krewson

Heartbreakingly beautiful film, a brilliant adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's equally beautiful novel, is a sort of Casablanca for our time.

100

Salon.com Gary Kamiya

Minghella, by brilliantly editing the romantic scenes down to a few jagged, archetypal moments, captures something of the sacred whirlwind.

100

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

A stunning feat of literary adaptation as well as a purely cinematic triumph.

100

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

A big, fat old-fashioned gush of passion as drawn through a post-modernist prism that makes it less easily comprehensible but more beguiling.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The kind of movie you can see twice--first for the questions, the second time for the answers.

100

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

Minghella is an artist and he has painted himself a masterpiece.

Film.com Mary Brennan

Minghella shapes Ondaatje's sprawling story into something miraculously cohesive, and at the movie's center is one of the most compelling love stories in recent memory.

Slate Sarah Kerr

The acting of this central trio is brilliant, in part because the crisscrossing of these and other stories and the gorgeous backdrops take some of the weight off: The characters are free to be flawed without losing our interest.

Newsweek David Ansen

Succeeds stunningly on its own terms.

Mr. Showbiz F. X. Feeney

Astonishingly deep and moving.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Feels brief and dreamlike. Waking from its spell, you touch your face, and it's wet, but you're smiling anyway.

USA Today Mike Clark

The big story here is Kristin Scott Thomas' captivating performance.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is one of the year's most unabashed and powerful love stories, using flawless performances, intelligent dialogue, crisp camera work, and loaded glances to attain a level of eroticism and emotional connection that many similar films miss.

TNT RoughCut Wendy Wilson

The power of the Fiennes/Scott Thomas affair burns through the clutter (imagine "Casablanca" meets "Map of the Human Heart") making The English Patient a theatrical must-see.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

The two films bursting out of The English Patient (a chamber piece and a David Lean dune epic) require a juggling of tone, pace and scale that might easily defeat a director more seasoned than Minghella.

Film.com Robert Horton

It's got both the sweeping spectacle and the keen, tactile sense of human intimacy.

Film.com Tom Keogh

The look, the feel, the brood-y, brilliant cast: This is an oddly affecting movie, all right, a jellyroll of Bronte and Hemingway.

Variety Staff (Not credited)

A respectable, intelligent but less than stirring adaptation of an imposingly dense and layered novel.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

A smashing success on its own terms, though as a transcendent love story it lacks the firm foundation in human reality that characterizes Lars Von Trier's superior "Breaking the Waves."

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Boasts the elements of something greater than a love story. Too bad it devotes them to something less than a great love story. [22 November 1996, Friday, p.A]

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Lusts for catharsis yet never quite gets there, because, for all of its bitter romantic anguish, it ultimately coalesces in your head rather than your heart.

Dallas Observer Michael Sragow

This intelligent, affecting work is squishy at the core.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

Kristin Scott Thomas is the film's revelation. She takes center stage as a smart, fearless woman who's utterly irresistible.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

It's reasonably well told and well mounted but little more.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The English Patient is excitingly promising. Then the screenplay goes rotten, like an overripe melon. [Dec. 9, 1996]

The average user rating for this movie is 6.4 (out of 10) based on 35 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rod G. gave it a1:
There are very few movies worthy of a zero rating but this comes close. Seinfeld was right about this one.

Kate B. gave it a10:
I think that the people who rated this low must be either mad or deluding themselves because this is an amazing film. All the way through it provokes emotion, and the end is powerful.

Al M. gave it a3:
Do you realyy believe that the Allies having to take care of a badly burned man in NorthAfrica found best to send him to Italy in the hands of a field hospital. The story is an accumulation of illogical developments that were totally unnecessary to portray a destructive passion that was big by itself. I give a 3 in recognition of cinematographer work.

Doug T. gave it a3:
Stylish film about the beauty of extreme self-centered melodrama. Hated it from the early scene where the heroine walks into a minefield to retrieve a memento of a dead friend. If she wants to blow herself up, go ahead, but she had no right to endanger the other two men trying to clear the mines. From there, it goes on to justify helping the Nazis if you're melancholy enough.

Pam L. gave it a1:
My co-workers raved about this movie and when it first became available on VHS, I rented it. I watched the whole thing and I think it is way overrated. This was no love story that I could relate to in any way. I'm really glad I didn't pay theater prices to see this.

Ben G. gave it a10:
Ok it may be slow but the gradual build up rewards you with an amazing climax of emotion and raw passion. It is help by some great performances

Allan F. gave it a9:
One of the best films ever made, based on one of the best books ever written.

English Patient, The Miramax Films

English Patient, The
Miramax Films