I'd never previously seen the whole film. My parents have pay TV, and sometimes before I moved out it would be on one of the several 'movie channels', and I'd watch maybe ten minutes and lose interest. So I wondered, upon finding the DVD, just why it had won so many damn awards.
Of course, when watching a movie comprised of a large proportion of flashbacks, watching it from the start is ideal, which is probably where I tripped up several times before. The cinematography is absolutely stunning, beautiful flight scenes over an even more beautiful desert kept me completely captivated. Ralph Fiennes' character Almásy is, well, there isn't any other word for it: hot. Super hot. Hotter than anything that modern cinema has thrown up for quite some time. I can't, quickly searching my memory banks, think of anyone that damn hot. He's in a league of his own.
Even aside from all the bodice ripping - yes, that actually happens - the plot is wonderfully crafted, keeping me guessing right up to the very last moment, as the flashbacks to fill in Almásy's forgotten past get closer and closer to the truth are spread among the more linear timeline of events after his plane is shot down.
This film, if you haven't seen it already, should be one your to-do list, and if you have seen it, The English Patient should be on your list anyway.
"The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness."
