Star Trek: First Contact . Tucson Weekly . 12-26-96

Star Trek: First Contact

DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Frakes

REVIEWED: 12-26-96

Against all probability, Canadian novelist Michael Ondaantje's award-winning novel translates into an impressive, sepia-toned love story of epic proportions (that is, it clocks in at 162 minutes). Alternately filmed on location in Italy and North Africa, the screenplay sidesteps the magical realist bent of the novel in favor of an historic drama spanning the conquest of North Africa by the Brits and the horrors of war-torn Italy in 1945. Ralph Fiennes stars as the title character, with strong support from Kristin Scott Thomas (the object of his obsession) and Juliet Binoche (his nurse after the accident which leaves him, and his amazing story, charred and dying). Visually stunning and, at times, painfully moving, The English Patient paradoxically forges a new, invented story that nonetheless remains true to the original novel.--M.W.

--Ernesto Slab

Full Length Reviews
Star Trek: First Contact

Other Films by Jonathan Frakes
Star Trek: Insurrection

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