Loved the story BUT, it took me 3 attempts to get through it all

Rating: 4/10 (27 May 2008)

Okay, I finally just got through the whole thing. I wanted to see this movie because I knew it had musical connotations and was about being in love with Penelope Cruz. Which isn't hard to do.
When there is a good script and good story you would think that "top" actors like Nic Cage and Christian Bale would seriously buff up on their local talk. If you are going to do a foreign movie in English with an accent of the local language then you got some serious work to do. Nic apparently didn't do enough training for his accent. He goes from one sentence saying something like: hey man, surfs up dude!, to aye mama mia, no hay pizzaria. If you pay attention to his accent it is all over the place.
If you watch an A actor like Leo Dicaprio, he will seriously study the local vernacular and slang and bring it into his character and make the audience believe it. Look at his accents in Blood Diamond or Gangs of New York. He nails it. These two guys Nic and Christian completely blow it. It gets better towards the end of the film but come on guys, do your homework. Jeezus, it is so distracting and hard to get into a movie where the characters have clearly not done their homework.
My overall feeling about this movie is very conflicted. I loved the story and loved the classical guitar piece that Nics' character recorded but, the accent thing I obviously cannot ignore. They should have done this movie with real Italians, Spaniards, and Germans and kept it real, or otherwise brought in an actor that does his homework like Leo Dicaprio. So there.. That is what I think, take it or leave it....