The Academy Awards obviously has its own set of politics, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why anyone voted this as Best Picture. I went into this film with low expectations and was still disappointed. In fact, the other four nominees were infinitely better than this, without question. The only good parts involved Juliette Binoche’s character (who actually deserved her OSCAR). But the other half involving Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas is so boring, uneven and poorly written that you can’t wait for it to end. I sat through all four hours of HAMLET and wasn’t even close to being as bored as I was through THE ENGLISH PATIENT. Anyone who saw this and SLING BLADE knows what a crime it was that this was even nominated, and that SLING BLADE wasn’t.