The English Patient received widespread critical acclaim, and emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, and received nine Academy Awards, six BAFTA awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times called the movie "a stunning feat of literary adaptation as well as a purely cinematic triumph".[22] In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane argues that "the triumph of the film lies not just in the force and the range of the performances—the crisp sweetness of Scott Thomas, say, versus the raw volatility of Binoche—but in Minghella's creation of an intimate epic: vast landscapes mingle with the minute details of desire, and the combination is transfixing".[23]
The film has a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 91 reviews, with an average of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving."[24] The film also has a rating of 87/100 on Metacritic, based on 31 critical reviews.[25] Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a four-star rating, saying "it's the kind of movie you can see twice – first for the questions, the second time for the answers".[26] In his movie guide, Leonard Maltin rated the film 3+1⁄2 out of 4, calling it "a mesmerizing adaptation" of Ondaatje's novel, saying "Fiennes and Scott Thomas are perfectly matched", and he concluded by calling the film "an exceptional achievement all around".[27] In 2021, The Boston Globe called the movie a "masterpiece" in a 25-year anniversary review.[28]
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on a scale of A+ to F.[29]
It became the highest-grossing film in the history of Miramax with a worldwide gross of $232 million.[30][6]
The film is referred to in the Seinfeld episode "The English Patient", where the character Elaine is shunned by her friends and co-workers for disliking the film.[31]
