Captain Correli tugs at the heartstrings

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2001)

Based on Louis De Bernieres's bestseller this is a powerful love story set against the backdrop of real events during World War II.
It all begins, idyllically enough, on the sunny Greek island of Cephallonia, where Dr Iannis's daughter, Pelagia, is engaged to local fisherman, Mandras. Iannis disapproves of the match, feeling that his only child could do better but the couple are happy enough until the war against Italy, in Albania, sees Mandras leave to join the Greek Army. Pelagia writes to her fiancé, every day but hears nothing from him in return. She assumes that he's dead - particularly when news arrives of the Greeks' defeat at the hands of the Italians' German allies.
The lives of all the islanders are turned upside down, as Italian soldiers arrive to occupy Cephallonia. When officers are billeted in local homes, Iannis and Pelagia are joined by the charismatic Captain Corelli. Whilst the doctor treats this pragmatically, as an opportunity to get medical supplies from the Italians' quartermaster, his daughter finds her loyalties sorely tested. Should she stay faithful to her newly returned war hero fiancé, or succumb to the charms of the mandolin-playing captain? Before these matters of the heart can be resolved, Italy surrenders and the Germans launch a full-scale invasion.
At first, Captain Corelli's Mandolin is a heart-warming tale of Italians and Greeks learning to live together in, if not harmony, then at least a kind of relatively peaceful co-existence. The performances from the entire cast are superb, with John Hurt, in particular making the most of his part as the wise and witty Iannis and Penelope Cruz making a perfect Pelagia. Meanwhile, Nicolas Cage's brash, but also gentle and cultured, Captain Corelli is a bold piece of casting by director John (Shakespeare In Love) Madden.
An A-list Hollywood actor sticks out like a sore thumb in a character driven film such as this but that's exactly as it should be. Given the effect the character has on the people around him, he ought to look and feel slightly out of place. After a few years of him seeming only to have appeared in thrillers and action movies, it's good to see Cage getting to grips with something that stretches him a bit more as an actor.
Also excellent is Christian Bale. His performance as the simple-hearted Mandras is light years from the slick yuppie of last year's American Psycho but he's totally convincing, even when he looks a little too much like Demis Roussos for comfort.
Having set up characters you really care about and shown you enough of Cephallonia to have you mentally packing your suitcases for next year's holiday, the Nazi invasion sees the film perform an about face. The action in the third act puts war films such as Saving Private Ryan to shame by being so much more emotionally affecting, because you're seeing people and places you feel that you know personally being blown up and shot to pieces.
As one of the (apparently) few people who haven't read the book, I can't comment on whether Captain Correli's Mandolin is true to the novel but it is a terrific film and I wholeheartedly recommend that you see it.