Mandolin Off Tune

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2001)

Ever since the closing moments of `Notting Hill when the Hugh Grant character was seen reading the novel `Captain Corelli's Mandolin' with its distinctive blue cover, like so many fellow readers of this superb work I have looked forward eagerly to the film from the same British production company of Working Title. Essentially people's reaction to the movie is likely to depend on whether or not they are familiar with the book. My three companions at the cinema had not read the novel and loved the movie. I suspect that most of those who have savoured the written version will like me  leave with their undoubted pleasure tinged with a sense of disappointment.
Of course, a film always has to be different from the book, not least because of the distinctive media being used and the variable time available  and `Mandolin' is a particularly long and complex work. Therefore I can understand scriptwriter Shawn Slovo abandoning almost all the political references and concentrating on the romance, although I think that the result is a little too sanitised. I can even appreciate the need to change the ending and make it more immediate and emotionally satisfying. But was it really necessary to excise even the homo-erotic relationship between Corelli and his saviour Carlo?
The greatest strength of this work from British director John Madden (`Shakespeare In Love') is the island of Cephallonia itself and, whatever the extra cost, the decision to shoot it entirely on location has resulted in some wonderful photography and a sensuous feel to the whole work. The chief weakness is the casting. The gorgeous Spanish actress Penelope Cruz is perfect as the young object of Corelli's affections Pelagia and John Hurt is rather good as her father, the local physician Dr Iannis. But Nicolas Cage is seriously miscast as Antonio Corelli, with mannerisms and accent that defy credibility, while David Morrissey is even worse as the leading German on the island and Christian Bale little better as the rival for Pelagia's love, the fisherman turned resistance fighter Mandras.