Based on Michael Ondaatje's Booker-Prize-winning novel, The English Patient won 9 Oscars.
Juliette Binoche is Hana, a nurse caring for a badly burned Englishman (Ralph Fiennes) at a deserted Tuscan monastery. As he's dying, the patient tells Hana how he fell in love with a married woman (Kristin Scott-Thomas) whilst working in the Middle East. The relationship had tragic consequences and we see these scenes in flashback.
As you would expect from such a great cast (including - yes! - Colin Firth), the acting is brilliant if a little cold. The film looks incredibly beautiful and it is tragically romantic, but I found it pretentious, while, at the same time, being totally transfixed.
I would suggest reading the novel after watching the film. If I hadn't seen the film first I would have found the novel completely inpenetrable.
