I loved the English Patient, not because I glorify infidelity, but because movies where the protagonists have perfect characters are too simplistic, linear and therefore too boring for my taste. The English Patient emphasizes character flaws of some of its protagonists and how guilty and wrong some of them felt because of that. The Katherine character, for example, realized her husband loved her deeply, which was why she felt very guilty about the affair that was difficult to avoid after they were trapped in the sandstorm alone. So she later ended the affair even though she was very much in love with the other man (which also seemed to be more of her caliber) and they only got reunited later due to the crash. The movie purposedly portrayed her husband as an ideal husband so it intentionally portrayed her as an ungrateful woman in that respect.


To me, characters in movies or literary works with flaws are much more interesting because they are more human and diverse. In a way, they let me virtually have those flaws and experience the often disastrous consequences. I personally think guilt is one of the most powerful and lasting emotion, which is the main source of despair in several of the movie's characters. And you saw how eventually each bad character got what they deserved by the end of the movie, not through divine intervention but simply because those actions they had chosen to do logically would have serious consequences.


Bridges of Madison County, however, was definitely not my kind of movie, because the husband was not supposed to be a good guy for her, so my rating of that movie is "Yuck" even though it also portrays infidelity. That movie tried to justify her action, and therefore her character, and that made it a movie that will put me, personally, to sleep