Anthony Minghella

These many years later, The English Patient is getting a bad rap from people. "Faintly silly" in the Atlantic I notice. Dudes, it's still a good movie, don't go trashing it because it won Best Picture and because it's ... you know, sappy.

Anyway, Minghella is a very good director, and as the Atlantic piece goes on to say, his best film is The Talented Mr. Ripley. I would absolutely agree. There is a scene part way through this film that has got to be one of the most violent acts I've seen on film, and it's not because it's that bad visually, it's because of the emotional coil that unwinds with it. It's disturbing, scary, and it draws you in to root for Ripley a bit. Matt Damon is awesome, Jude Law is awesome, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (in a small role) is awesome. And Gweneth Paltrow is pretty awesome too. Here's Ebert's 4 star review of the film.

Minghella is also the director of the upcoming "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," which I believe he finished before he died. It will be interesting to see how it turned out. The author, McCall Smith, will be in Tacoma next month. I'll be interested to hear what he says about it as well.