I love "The English Patient." But then, I love Ralph Fiennes. Actually, this was the movie of his that sent me over the edge where that's concerned. Well, this and "Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'" (with him as Heathcliff and Juliette Binoche as Cathy). The characters he plays in both movies are not likable. Not at all. And yet you feel for them because he gives them a vulnerability someone else wouldn't have been able to carry off.
Even better than the movie "The English Patient" is Ralph Fiennes' reading of the book. Actually a condensed form of the book that was recorded a year or two after he made the movie. What he does with the characters' dialog is amazing. He doesn't make his voice go up an octave when he reads the females' words - but he changes something so subtle in cadence and intonation that he makes the distinction between the male and females, when talking with each other, easy. And he has the most remarkable voice. I could listen to him read a dictionary and swoon.
I thought the movie was really beautiful - especially Juliette Binoche's role in it. She is truly the star and the moral compass or conscience of the piece. She's the glue, as they say, that holds it all together. I would watch it for her alone, and when I do rewatch it, it's mostly for her (and the cheap thrills every now and again at Ralph's physical loveliness and raw intensity, of course).