Arts and Ways of Healing

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2001)

Sandwiching a love story between Pelagia (Penelope Cruz) and Captain Antonio Corelli (Nicolas Cage), Pelegia's father-physician (John Hurt) removes an ear blockage from a patient at the movie's beginning and is asked to replace it at the end. In between is a cinematic lesson, reportedly unfaithful to the novel and somewhat to historical fact, that says the most about the arts and ways of healing as any movie I've happened across since reading Albert Camus' The Plague.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin opens in 1940 on the island of Cephallonia. When the Germans trump a Greek military victory (elsewhere) over the forces of Mussolini, an occupying force of battle-unsullied Italians arrives to incur the contempt and detestation of the locals. What follows is a transnational tension that gradually becomes a reevaluation, both among the populace generally and in the heart that resides in the female leading character, a daughter-doctor in training.
Hurt should be nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a physician of body, soul, and ethics. He probably ought to win, pending a look at other prospective candidates. Cruz shines in a pair of scenes where she speaks not a line but reacts by purest facial language to that which she feels obligated to despise yet cannot because of its gentility. Cage likewise gives a wholly acceptable performance, and Piero Maggio in a minor role is even better as the one Italian who is a survivor of the prelude carnage. David Morrissey plays with skill a stiff German liaison officer who takes a liking to the Italians' frivolity. Bale balances carefully his character's simultaneous patriotism and romantic plight. Irene Papas is capably present as his mother.
This film is getting reviews of mediocrity and badness from many critics. Romantics are advised to ignore them. In my mind it's an IMDb 7, or in customary ratings lingo, against the grain, at least 3 stars. Bright stars, at that, lighting the stage of an unusually medicinal Greek tragedy.