Drama > M Drama > BAFTA

Advantages: Touching love story, beautiful desert scenery, well acted
Disadvantages: Very sad, jumps around a bit, perhaps a thinking persons film

...then look no further than The English Patient. I bought the English Patient on DVD at Sainsbury's a few weeks ago. I had just finished the book and thought I'd quite like to see what the film was like. I purchased it in a 3 for £30 deal. The book I read because it's on my Booker Prize winners list that I'm slowly working my way through this year. I have to be honest, although I liked the idea of it, I didn't enjoy it very much and had to force myself ...
...would like to re-read the book just to see how the director Anthony Minghella managed to create such a masterpiece from the same story I found dull on the page. Overview of the story *********************** If you have never heard of The English Patient then the following should help. The story is set at the end of the Second World War, in Italy, and for the most part moves between 1944 and up to two years before hand. The main character is a ... Read review

Advantages: Deep, with hidden ideas and meanings, and a great ending
Disadvantages: A bit stereotypical in places

American Beauty is a modern-day classic film, showing how restraining and boring suburban life in America can be, and how one man shows us how he breaks free. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is stuck in a boring job under a boss he hates, has taken to masturbating in the shower because his wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), isn't sexually relieving him, and he finds himself hated by his daughter. He becomes with his stale, repetitive existence. Lester ...
...role of his career in American Beauty. His measured, dull tones work perfectly with the character of Lester, and Spacey is the best man that could have been cast. There are also good performances from Annette Bening and Chris Cooper (as the colonel), but a stand-out performance comes from Wes Bentley as the perfect Ricky. The directing from Sam Mendes was perfect, the meanings were delivered very well. For anyone wanting to watch a deep film with ... Read review

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...home to his town of Cold Mountain in North Carolina to get back to this sweetheart Ada who he meet before the war. Escaping from the hospital, he begins the journey to his home. Ada is left alone in the town, struggling to run her rural farm after the death of her father. She has trouble surviving on her own because she's not used to the farm life and lives on the kindness of her neighbors until one of them sends over a woman called Ruby, a feisty ...
...old battle wounds. Based on the novel by Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain is the tale of two lovers torn apart and made to survive until they can reunite. Staring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Rene Zellweger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman and musician Jack White. Directed by Anthony Minghella. ... Read review

Advantages: Stellar performances, great film
Disadvantages: -

...fashion, against the protests of her children and her ministers, John Brown, a favourite ghillie of the royal couple, was brought back into service of the Queen household. Victoria's favouritism toward him, coupled with his own brash and blunt behaviour, caused him to be envied and disliked by members of her family, her household service, her ministers, and largely by the public. There were parodies of John Brown's activities, done up in the form ...
...death, between the Queen and her doctor at the time, Profeit, regarding John Brown. This came into the possession of her new doctor, Reid, who recorded 'most compromising' secrets into his green memorandum book. Alas, this book was burned by Reid's son, and the trunk was not found. Did it refer to a secret marriage between Victoria and John Brown, as was often speculated? This is, in truth, unlikely -- Victoria's devotion to Albert never waned in ... Read review

Advantages: Great acting, beatiful cinematography
Disadvantages: None

The English Patient is an adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel of the same name. Set during WW2, it tells the story of Count Almasy (Ralph Fienns) who is found badly burned in the Sahara desert. He is moved to Tuscany and Hana (Juliette Binoche), a Canadian nurse, ends up taking care of him in an old italian monastery. Through flashbacks, we learn what happened to Almasy. He was in Cairo when he met Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), she ...
...usual, I won't tell you the whole story as I don't want to spoil the movie for you. The movie is set in both Tuscany and the Sahara desert. The cinematography is absolutely beautiful: this film is visually stunning (see the dreamy sand dunes in the opening credit). Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes and Krisin Scott Thomas were absolutely superb. The English Patient won nine Academy Awards and when you will have seen the movie you'll know why. The ... Read review