Unlike many, I have not read the book and so I watched this purely as a film in its own right. I'm not especially keen on romance dramas, and I expected this to be a bit slushy and/or operatic so I was rather hesitant about going to see it in the first place...

But I'm glad I did, because it was good. Beautiful, "feel good" scenery and with a light touch of humour that made it rather more endearing than a straight drama would have been. The romance was gentle, inoffensive and sufficiently interwoven with enough "proper" story-telling to keep my interest, and the score was not too obtrusively operatic.

Overall, the film takes a satisfying circular route from start to finish, inducing a range of emotions as it progresses. It's about 2 hours long, but I didn't find myself fidgeting or looking at my watch once - and that's quite a feat for me!! Very enjoyable.

When I was watching this movie one thought had come to my mind for several times: "It's not really what I expected, I thought it would be better", but now that I finished watching it I realize: why should I expect a better result from this movie? Isn't it just a "love story" made up in Hollywood show's standards? Of course, it is! If so, why expect more?

Captain Corelli's mandolin is a romance story in war time (WWII) and the plot which I was noticed about before watch the movie seemed very interesting to me. All that I didn't count was the "Hollywood standard's" touch... What I mean by this is that I expected a story a bit more realistic and with a stronger plot (which was not full of "plot holes" as this one is!) instead of this "sweet story romance, with the perfect ending", which we're used to watch in a great part of Hollywood's movies! Another Hollywood standard's gaffe which is very common is the natives' languages issue. The differences between Italian, Greek and German languages were all done just by a stupid accent, and all people seem to understand each other very well. The Italian and the German army arrive to a "forgotten" Greek island and they all understand each other very well as they all speak the same language! Of course it's just little technical details that don't even matter to the plot, but are all this little details which separate a good from a bad production!

But the movie has not just bad-sided arguments! On the good side, I can find the original idea (which comes from a book), and the thought that is possible to be Human, and have Human feelings, even inside a War. It's possible to sing and be happy, have good feelings, to love and to be loved in a War time! Was because of that main idea that I wanted to watch this movie, and at this particular point I wasn't disappointed! I just was dissatisfied about the way it was made! Another good-sided argument is History's knowledge… The movie is not very deep at that issue, but it's good enough to have a little idea how was the WWII in the Eastern-South Europe.

Globally Captain Corelli's mandolin is not a bad movie but it's not as good as I initially though either, mostly because of the "Hollywood show's standards" up-mentioned.

If you haven't read the book, I recommend you do so, it was truly beautiful, heart-breaking, funny, incredibly romantic and had interesting characters and left vivid imagery in your head. This film from Shakespeare in Love director John Madden is definitely watchable, but it was also a disappointment.

Starting with the good things, the scenery, costumes and cinematography are absolutely breathtaking. On top of that the score is absolutely marvellous, Madden's direction is pretty good-though he has directed better especially with the Inspector Morse episodes he directed- and the story is a beautiful and interesting one, with some sweet, funny and touching moments.

In terms of acting, it is a mixed bag really. Christian Bale does well with a character that could have done with more development, while John Hurt is even better, Hurt is a brilliant and underrated actor, and playing one of the more intriguing characters he is wonderfully dignified. However, Nicolas Cage is a miscast unfortunately-right, I have nothing against Cage, he has been in some good films and has given some good performances but he has also been very inconsistent. While his role here is not his worst film role(ie. his role in The Wicker Man remake was much worse), his character felt somewhat cartoony complete with an accent that didn't really work as it feels overdone. Penelope Cruz is better though, I did have a problem with her accent (too Spanish for my liking), she does have a nice character to work with and looks amazing.

While the acting was a mixed bag and the score and scenery amazing, there are several flaws that stop Captain Corelli's Mandolin from being better than it was. Other reviewers have commented on its resemblance to the book(or lack of it), but there were other things wrong that were more significant to me. Also the book, while wonderful, is quite an ambitious one to bring to screen and I do accept that it wasn't 100% faithful(there have been films that try to do that and don't quite work as a consequence), so while I applaud the film for adapting it it could have been better. The pacing is very languid so the film takes a while to get going, until the final battle segment which felt rushed, while the dialogue is on the sappy side of things. Then there are characters that feel sketched over, I was too disappointed at how Carlo was treated, while some of the secondary characters are rather clichéd and perhaps stereotypical.

Overall, disappointing but definitely watching for the scenery, Hurt and music especially. 5.5/10 Bethany Cox