BLINDSPOTS:
Movie Reviews for Visually Impaired People

"The English Patient," rated "R" and with a running time of a little more than two and a half hours, is a quite strange and rather twisted tale of love, starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche. The film takes place in Italy, near the end of World War Two. Surviving the plane crash, after being shot down, the "English Patient" is cared for by a devoted, lonely nurse, who has experienced her own painful losses during the war. She assists her severely burned patient, who also has a case of amnesia, as he begins to piece together his shattered memory. Lots of things trigger pleasant and painful flashes from the past for him, as he slowly reclaims his identity.

From the visually impaired point of view, some movies are hard to follow because of long scenes with very little dialogue. This picture was doubly difficult, because, in addition to lots of long, speechless scenes, there were quick, subtle jumps from the present to past and back to present. On top of all this the first half of the movie felt very scattered and fragmented. Maybe this was done to give the audience a feel for the mental struggle of amnesia patients, but for blind, movie-goers, it is nothing less than torture. For what seemed the longest time, I didn't know what was going on. The last half hour of the movie was easier to follow, although I still thought the content was very bizarre. The only way I can recommend this movie is if you , first, listen to the book on tape. Then, at least, you'll have a sense of what's happening. I'll give this movie a rating of 3.


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