But it isn't long before they begin an unlikely but torrid affair, which, naturally, has tragic consequences.

These parallel stories have their compelling elements, but neither is completely successful. And the film really begins to get sluggish about halfway through, as the flashback affair takes on routine soap-opera machinations (with an R-rated explicitness, of course).

When the film is mysterious and exotic, and when the characters are allowed to engage each other, "The English Patient" soars. And some sequences are quite spectacular, as when an overnight sandstorm buries an occupied jeep.

But too often writer-director Anthony Minghella ("Truly, Madly, Deeply," "Mr. Wonderful") lets things get flabby, and the film is too long to accommodate his excesses (nearly 2 hours, 45 minutes).

And it's annoying that the character of Kip gets short-shrift, when he is a much more important and complex personage in the book.

Still, with all the eye-popping scenery and outstanding performances, especially from Binoche and Thomas, there is much to recommend. And perhaps we should acknowledge that Minghella has accomplished no small feat in mounting an involving film from such a difficult source.

"The English Patient" is rated R for violence, hospital gore, nudity, sex, profanity, vulgarity and drugs.