this be one of the most underrated movie of the 1990s . if you allow yourself to identify with the patricia arquette character and you will find it to be a very move story of a woman regain a sense of purpose to her life and and find a new will to live . arquette performance be brave because it be purposefully wooden it a way of define her character spiritual death and her complete lack of a desire to be alive . she move through life like a zombie because her family have be murder and she can not see the point of living . what be move be how in the course of the story and she be reawaken by the burmese landscape and by the beautiful quality of it people and landscape and and by the primal choice she be force to confront . boorman support this visually ( and hans zimmer support it with one of his most gorgeous and haunting score ) with an often static camera and with a propensity to shoot through glass and window and windshield and etc . we be on the outside look in and just like arquette . until she find herself deep in the jungle and be force to choose whether or not to fight for her life . i recommend the 1954 movie the purple plain a well . it a similar story in a similar setting and and make for a fascinating comparison .