Ok but slightly bland (Captain Corelli's Mandolin (DVD))

Member Name:

Product:	Captain Corelli's Mandolin (DVD)
Date:	07/01/02 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice story, Good acting

Disadvantages: Bland, Too long

I don't think the trailer for this movie did it any favours, it definitely put me well off seeing it at the cinema.

Well, it's based on the book by Louis de Bernieres, which I haven't read so can't really comment about how accurate the film is to the original book. If the book is anything like the film, I probably wouldn't read it.

The movie starts with life in a small Greek village, with a focus on the village Doctor and his young daughter, played by John Hurt and Penelope Cruz respectively. The second World War is coming to Greece, which involves the occupation of their island by Italian forces, after their leader (Mousollini)has signed a pact with the Nazis. For most of the movie, the war has little real impact; Italian forces are occupying the island, but haven't rounded up and shot the locals like in so many war movies.

The Italian forces' second-in-command is Captain Correli, played by Nicolas Cage. He is in love with music, and spends hours on the beach singing with his musical troops. In the movie he says "I've never aimed a gun at anyone!"

The Doctor's daughter is in love with the village fisherman / hero and gets engaged. He goes off to war, promising to return. She writes loads of letters, which get no reply, so she assumes he is dead. She starts to fall in love with Captain Correli, who is lodging at her father's house.

Without giving away the whole plot, it's a love triangle, against the backdrop of war which at the end of the film, arrives on the island with a real loud BANG!

John Hurt steals the movie as the doctor, but then this guy has always been brilliant. Cage comes across as slightly cheesy, but his Italian accent isn't too bad so he is quite believable. Cruz plays the village girl role quite well, and the supporting cast of Correlli's men and the other villagers add some humour.

It's a light hearted film, but wit
h some horrific bits (The Germans put their machine guns to good use at one point) and a strange war scene near the end of the film, as the Germans occupy the village. The war scene is actually pretty crap, looks totally unrealistic as if the director hadn't seen any recent war movies?

It's a long film, and meanders along quite slowly until the war comes to the village. IT's probably a good film if you're sitting at home with a good bottle of red wine, otherwise you may find it a bit slow. Personally I enjoyed little bits of the movie, but overall it was a bit "bland", as if nothing had really happened. The love between Captain Correli and the Doctor's daughter seemed a bit intense considering the limited amount of screen time they share, as if they are trying to make a bigger deal of it than it really is? Maybe the book went into more detail / depth and made their relationship seem more genuine. Perhaps in the movie, Cage and Cruz didn't have the necessary chemistry to pull this off.

At the end of the movie, I wasn't unsatisfied, but did feel like I had watched a Channel 5 evening movie? Overall it's ok, but a bit bland.

Summary: