Daily Staff Writer

The English Patient is a sprawling film that is reminiscent of the dramas of the 1940s, a serious film for adults. It’s a romance, a period drama and a war film rolled together, with an overarching theme of continuing to love in the face of terrible loss.

It’s really two films in one. One story set in pre-World War II Egypt and another in 1944 Italy.

It begins with a startling scene over the Egyptian desert. A biplane slowly makes its way across the sky with a man and woman on board. The aircraft encounters a German anti-aircraft battery and is shot down, its engine flaming and burning the passengers.

The man survives and is rescued by passing Bedouins. The film then cuts to Italy at a British field hospital, where a man, horribly burned years earlier, is in his last days. He is taken to an abandoned monastery to die, accompanied by a Canadian nurse.

The man’s identity is unknown, and he suffers from amnesia. But while the nurse cares for him, his memories begin to reappear. The film shows, through extended flashbacks, that he is Count Laszlo Almasy, a Hungarian who worked on a British mapping expedition in 1939.

Almasy is immediately drawn to the wife, Catherine, of another expedition member, and a relationship builds throughout their time in the desert.

In the face of impending war, the expedition is canceled, and the affair between Almasy and Catherine explodes while they are in Cairo. It is a tempestuous and destructive affair, one which ultimately ruins their lives and damages everyone around them.

But while listening to her dying patient’s story, the nurse learns to accept her losses. She becomes involved with an Indian bomb-disposal expert, a brave move considering her history and his dangerous line of work.

The one problem with the film —and oddly, its greatest strength — lies with its characters. They engage in an affair which eventually hurts a great many people. Indeed, Almasy’s actions in the name of love are responsible for a great many deaths in the African Theater of World War II.

However, the characters are so deep and well-drawn that it’s hard not to become engrossed in their story. While they may not be terribly sympathetic, they are very interesting.

The actors are up to the task as well. Ralph Fiennes as Almasy and Kristin Scott Thomas as Catherine are brilliant, swinging between the euphoric highs and crushing lows of their affair. Juliette Binoche is excellent as Hana, the nurse who learns to care again through her dying patient.

Willem Dafoe is solid as an agent who believes that Fiennes is the man who betrayed him in Africa, and therefore responsible for the loss of his thumbs, taken during an interrogation by a brutal Nazi officer chillingly played by Jurgen Prochnow (the sub commander from Das Boot ).

Technically, the film is superb, with beautiful Tunisian and Italian locations expertly photographed and convincing production design.

The English Patient is a serious film with a daunting 2:42 running time. But it is a rich treat for filmgoers willing to make the investment. It is rated R for strong sexuality, some violence and language.