Not terrible

Rating: Null/10 (4 May 2002)

Captain Corelli has received some really harsh reviews, but it really isn't that bad. It's obvious what the problem was, the book was just not transferable onto screen. It couldn't possibly of been crammed into 2 hours, but then any longer and some would've found it too bum numbing. Needless to say, the scenery and score were just perfect. So Nic Cage's accent was dodgy, but apart from that I thought he was perfect for the part. He was exactly as I imagined Corelli to be, quite dorky but kind. For some reason, I've always thought of him like this, even after watching Con Air and Face Off. I was especially impressed with Penelope Cruz. I've never seen her in a thing, and after appearing in all those gossip columns with Tom Cruise, I foolishly thought she was just another average actress with good looks. But she was suprisingly good. I think people mistook her for being wooden when she was just trying to play her role down (nothing worse than a war damsel over-acting, how cheesy). Despite other comments, I fail to see what was so good about John Hurt. Place any other old man in his role, Ian McKellen etc, and I'm sure there would be no big difference. It's not that hard to play a wise, expressionless, old man, especially if you're old and a man. Outstanding acting came from Christian Bale. He played his part with so much emotion, I was quite suprised after American Psycho, and it made me very sad when Pelagia left him for Corelli (though one can't really see why...Pelagia goes from being in love with Mandras to practically finding him annoying, she only manages a weak "sorry" and not even any tears!) I also thought the Mandras' mother was played really well. But here are the bad points. What the hell happened to the character of Carlo?! *SPOILER* I can understand why the movie left the homosexual bit out, but his close friendship with Corelli was practically non-existent. And it can't make sense to anyone who hadn't read the book why he'd suddenly step in front of Corelli when all the Italians were being shot and save him, when the two had barely exchanged words throughout the whole film.
Another major point...the chemistry between the two leads. I fail to see any whatsoever. In fact, I agree with another commenter, the only loving scenes were between Mandras and Pelagia at the beginning. This made the film lose some of its intensity. All in all, good novel adaption, quite a good film. 8/10