A big lesson and a wonderful image

Rating: Null/10 (2 September 2001)

Captain Corelli's Mandolin' is a film that you couldn't possibly forget, first of all simply because of the location of filming, which, in these days of lightning-sped urbanization fills the heart with a longing for peaceful, leveled life in nature's beautifully powerful company. Apart from the beauty that you see, there is a beauty that you percept inside your heart. It is a film where each character has a handful of choices before him, choices that may change his or somebody else's lives forever. There are no black-and white characters. It has so much to say about love, and not the usual kind shown in films  love that surpasses just falling in love. Love that binds two people together in such a way that not only war, but also time's separation cannot shatter it. It is a film about life passing by and how our hearts change with time  accordingly to what people around us, as well as ourselves, choose to do. It also teaches us that everything, I mean absolutely every little thing that happens to us has a reason and comes from someone whom we may call Fate. It is in what we DO with the things that happen, how we react to them, that our liberty and free will are held.
I just came back from the cinema, it was only my second time viewing CCM, but I ensure you it will not be the last. Penelope Cruz is charming, and has a difficult role, where her character must choose, and show dignity and honor in the choices she makes. I call it difficult because she does not simply play a woman in love with the enemy. She plays a woman who time led through falling in love, being in love, and took her where little actresses I know have ever been  to a time of real love, not exciting, not breathless, not rash and quick to fade, but patient, smart, and everlasting. It is the ability to ACT OUT the difference that, apart from her amazing beauty, I greatly admire. I am also wonderfully surprised by the accent that all the actors have developed accordingly to what nationality their characters were. They were all really genuine, well maybe except for Gunter, who could have been better. Nicolas Cage's character had so much color and life inside, that his rather unhandsome appearance did not seem unequal to his partner's evident beauty. Go see it, even if you do not like war films. It is definitely a film of unforgettable beauty and challenging wisdom.