Beautiful to see, but lacking direction

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2001)

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (the movie) is a beautiful movie and the acting, especially by John Hurt, is quality. However, it is presented purely as a romantic story, while the books speaks so much more about the brutality of war.
Take, for example, Mandras. In the book he starts off nice but mildly sexist and then is transformed by the brutality of his war experience in Albania and the Partisans to a cold-blooded murderer. Now in the film he turns into just the loser of a love triangle. But not completely... he still hangs the woman who likes the German. Why? It goes against his film character (although fits with the book character).
And the film ending. Well, its how a love story should end. But CCM is really about how war tears people's lives apart and how we can make the best of it. The book's ending wasn't perfect either, but it was better.