A war movie shouldn't be a brochure for romantic holidays

Rating: 6/10 (11 November 2004)

I never had the feeling I was watching a war movie. This was nothing but a touristic brochure about the Greek Islands for young couples. It's sweeter than candy and has almost nothing to do with WWII, even though it pretends to be a war movie.
The story begins just before the war starts. Pelagia is engaged with a local fisherman against her father's will. Then the war starts and all the young men of the village go to war, fighting the Italians in Albania. Just before her fisherman leaves, she marries him and she promises that she will write him letters every day. She never gets a reply and doesn't know if he is still alive. In the meanwhile the Italians are defeated, but her husband hasn't returned. Hitler has send German troops to help the Italians and Greece looses the war after all. The Italians occupy Greece, but still no sight of her fisherman... An Italian captain is housed in their home. She hates him but after some time she starts to love him of course.
If you think you will see any action shots of the war the first 1.5 hours, you will be very disappointed. The only thing that you'll get to see is the love-hate relationship between the captain and Pelagia, Italians singing, dancing, drinking and making love... Trust me the movie's pace is so slow that you would like to push the fast forward button all the time because much isn't happening. Don't think that I wanted to see explosions all the time. I like romantic stories, but not if almost nothing happens in it.
Another reason why I will not see this movie again is because everybody seems to speak the same language, only with a small difference in accents. It doesn't matter if it is an Italian, a German or a Greek, they all speak English. Only a few times I heard some German, in the background. Especially Nicholas Cage's Italian accent was awful. I know, it's still a Hollywood movie, they need some known actors in it to make sure it gets enough publicity. If that's the only thing the producers were thinking about I can only say they succeeded. If they wanted an authentic feeling they should have hired actual Greeks, Germans and Italians. I'm sure there are some great actors in these countries as well.
What I did like about the movie was the scenery. The landscapes were absolutely beautiful. Like I said, it felt more like a brochure for romantic holidays. Seeing all the landscapes made me almost jump on the next plane to Greece so I could spend the rest of my life there. Let's be honest, that's not good if you want to shoot a war movie, is it? Or do you guys want to spend the rest of your lives in a ghetto with an extra trip to a concentration camp perhaps?
No, this movie really couldn't convince me. I don't have any problem with a romantic movie or with a war movie. I don't even mind if the two are combined into one, as long as it is good. I give this movie a 5.5/10.