<NEG> lengthy and lousy are two words to describe the boring drama </NEG> the english patient . great acting , music and cinematography were nice , but <NEG> too many dull sub-plots and characters </NEG> made the film <NEG> hard to follow </NEG> . ralph fiennes ( strange days , schindler's list ) gives a gripping performance as count laszlo almasy , a victim of amnesia and horrible burns after world war ii in italy . the story revolves around his past , in flashback form , <NEG> making it even more confusing </NEG> . anyway , he is taken in by hana ( juliette binoche , the horseman on the roof ) , a boring war-torn nurse . she was never really made into anything , until she met an indian towards the end , developing yet another sub-plot . count almasy begins to remember what happened to him as it is explained by a stranger ( willem dafoe , basquiat ) . his love ( kirstin scott thomas , mission impossible ) was severely injured in a plane crash , and eventually died in a cave . he returned to find her dead and was heart-broken . so he flew her dead body somewhere , but was shot down from the ground . don't get the wrong idea , it may sound good and the trailer may be tempting , but <NEG> good is the last thing this film is </NEG> . maybe if it were an hour less , it may have been tolerable , but 2 hours and 40 minutes of talking is <NEG> too much to handle </NEG> . the only redeeming qualities about this film are the fine acting of fiennes and dafoe and the beautiful desert cinematography . other than these , the english patient is <NEG> full of worthless scenes of boredom </NEG> and <NEG> wastes entirely too much </NEG> film . ,
