For Penelope Cruz Fans Only

Rating: 6/10 (10 May 2003)

There is only one reason to watch Captain Corelli's Mandolin: Penelope Cruz.

Though her performances vary little film to film, she has an ethereal beauty and an irresistible vulnerability that make her worth seeing over and over and over again. Her performances lack energy, some may say, but I say that they are subtle and soft, gentle and sensitive and when she does show her passion, it erupts with depth and conviction. We believe her. We have to. She acts from the inside out and so is incapable of telling a lie.

Nicolas Cage is poorly cast as an Italian soldier. His sweet, good-natured Charlie in "I Could Happen To You," didn't quite translate here. John Hurt is a great actor and has a weathered enough face to look the part of Cruz's father, an aging Greek country doctor, but fell just a tad short in his performance too. He's too - I'll say "English" - to pull it off.
Aside from Cruz, Christian Bale was well cast as Mandras, a brave and noble soldier and Cruz' fiancé. His character was a bit macho and I suppose that was one of the reasons Cruz fell for Cage's more sensitive Corelli, but it was never quite believable.
In the Cruz films I've seen ("Vanilla Sky," "All The Pretty Horses" and this one) the directors seem to use her sparingly. She pops in when needed. She's left a bit of a mystery. I never get the sense of who her characters really are. We usually see her only when and as her love interests see her. That's a shame. Because I could never see too much of her.