Corellis Mandoline (2001)

Corellis Mandoline: Directed by John Madden. With Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale, Irene Papas. When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.

“Unlike many, I have not read the book and so I watched this purely as a film in its own right. Iu0026#39;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…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut Iu0026#39;m glad I did, because it was good. Beautiful, u0026quot;feel goodu0026quot; 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 u0026quot;properu0026quot; story-telling to keep my interest, and the score was not too obtrusively operatic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enOverall, the film takes a satisfying circular route from start to finish, inducing a range of emotions as it progresses. Itu0026#39;s about 2 hours long, but I didnu0026#39;t find myself fidgeting or looking at my watch once – and thatu0026#39;s quite a feat for me!! Very enjoyable.”