Good but not a masterpiece!

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2001)

Although i can't say i was thrilled, i quite enjoyed watching this film. Filmed entirely on location, using many locals as well as many professional greek actors, the director succeeded in conveying the atmosphere of the time(Cephallonia in the 40's) to the audience. The dramatic, unspoiled landscape of the island provided some of the most magical scenes of the film,despite the fact that it did not receive any help from the music score, which was surprisingly bland,unemotional and overally unsatisfactory,especially towards the most dramatic final scenes. Moving on to the plot, i was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of the historical inconsistencies and inaccuracies found in the book, were omitted.Predominantly, i am referring to the depiction of the greek partisans, who were presented as brutal animals by the author of the book,that only contributed to an eternal, internal strife, and failed to offer any actual help to the enslaved greeks. In reality however, the partisans liberated significant parts of Greece during the 4 year german occupation, as well as helping the allies in many instances.Internal strife and civil war did not broke off until after the liberation of Greece.In the film the partisans and especially Mandras were presented in a more realistic and complex manner.However i was very disappointed at the way the actual love-affair was presented. I have already seen the film twice and despite all my efforts i failed to realise exactly when did Pelagia and Corelli stopped disliking each other and fell in love.Furthermore, the first 45 or so minutes of the film,consist of various events crammed in badly sewn together scenes, which make it quite difficult for anyone to actually enjoy the film, since all are busy trying to figure out what is going on.Moving on to the acting, i will agree with practically everyone who has seen the film, that Cage was horribly miscast(to put it mildly)as Captain Corelli.He failed in every way to convey Corelli's sensitivity,love of life,but also confusion when faced with the brutality of the germans.All that he was able to convince us of, was that he can't sing(notice a shot of his back when he is suppossed to be singing at a high note). Cruz on the other hand was very good as Pelagia, but unfortunately, her great acting was overshadowed by Cage's feeble attempts to act. John Hart's performance was rather mediocre. He provided respectable consistent acting throughout the film, but lacked originality and depth of emotions. Irene Papas on the other hand was excellent, and her performance really added life and passion to all the scenes she appeared in(which were rather limited i am afraid).Finally, Christian Beale, was very good as well, as Mandras, and managed to convey the two conflicting sides of his character. Generally, this was a good enough film, which however could have been a masterpiece had the script been more consisted and had the acting been more substantial.