Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Universal Pictures | Release Date: August 17, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
36
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
13
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Although it's in the same genre as "The English Patient," it's a vastly better movie --more surprising and original, more rigorous and sympathetic. This film is oddly shaped. It is also heartbreaking and exhilarating. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
The able cast brings these emotionally complex characters to life, while making Shawn Slovo's occasionally lyrical dialogue sound perfectly natural. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
The result is far from perfect, but to its many merits, add timing. You never get a movie with this kind of story in mid-August. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's beautifully shot on Cephallonian locations by superb landscape photographer John Toll.
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A handsomely staged and craftily constructed tearjerker. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Ultimately, it's a surprisingly empty experience. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Grand passion, secrecy, world politics and mortal danger provide a heady mix for this spectacularly beautiful movie. If only the accents were as reliable as the azure of the sea. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Never reaches this level of devastating loss despite its tragedies, but it's not the dismal bomb that much of the British press claims. Read full review
60
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
Good old-fashioned romantic entertainment, just restrained enough to skirt schmaltz.
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
Handsomely weathered John Hurt, as Pelagia's father, gives a performance of such unhackneyed dignity that it provides a moral compass for the action and helps to keep the ricocheting emotional content of the film in balance. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Strives for comprehensive coverage of its theme of forbidden love. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
In this film there is a scene where something is said in English pronounced with one accent, and a character asks, ''What did he say?'' and he is told -- in English pronounced with another accent. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Doesn't so much strike a lot of sour notes as fail to strike the right ones.
50
Entertainment WeeklyStaff (Not credited)
A movie that reduces history, as well as eros, to a postcard. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The only aspect that emerges a winner is the gorgeous Mediterranean scenery. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
Corelli is a coffee-table movie: one leafs through the gorgeous vistas and nods through the narrative.
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Partly a travelogue for the Greek islands, partly a simplistic love story, and generally a rehash of the Oscar-winning "Mediterraneo," as if we needed even the first one. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianBarry Johnson
No crime against the moviemaker's art, but it is flawed in a way we wouldn't expect from the director of "Shakespeare in Love." Read full review
40
VarietyDerek Elley
Strikes too many false notes on the dramatic side to add up to a satisfying emotional experience. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
Neither a badly miscast Cage nor an oddly dispassionate Cruz remotely suggest the ardor of love's passion. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJessica Winter
Ms. Cruz...once again proves her inability to give a bad performance even under the worst of circumstances. Read full review
30
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Every role is miscast. Whose idea was it to have the boyishly British Bale play an illiterate Greek peasant, or the elegant Hurt a gruff-voiced country doctor? Cruz’s run of bad luck in American movies continues. Read full review
30
New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo
The moviemakers have eliminated the finer points of the novel in favor of broad strokes. Very broad strokes. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Based on an interminable 1994 international bestseller by Louis de Bernières that I found impossible to make my way through. The movie duplicates exactly my experience with the book, although I must say I was thankful to be spared serial outbreaks of hearty Greek dancing. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Given the polyglot nature of the cast, with actors from at least five countries taking their best shots at the English language, it's unclear why Cage felt he needed an accent or, stranger still, why it took him a reported seven months to come up with this one. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
We began this dismal movie season with one lethally bad World War II romance -- "Pearl Harbor" -- and now we're wrapping up with another howling dog. Read full review
20
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
The real problem is not the maudlin script or Madden's travelogue touch. It's Cage as Corelli, a miscasting that turns the normally volatile, edgy performer into little more than a spokesman for the Olive Garden. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
I wish I'd brought a pair of peas to the screening. Then I could have taken in the glorious scenery without the dumb dialogue, which is delivered in a jangle of accents that makes a mockery of ethnicity.
20
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
To be fair, it's not solely Cage's fault that his new film, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, is lousy -- director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) deserves most of the heat for this listless dud. Read full review
20
SalonCharles Taylor
Sells ignorance as a refined evening's entertainment. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen Holden
As the movie methodically plods forward on a screenplay (by Shawn Slovo) consisting entirely of clichés and watered-down exposition, it becomes sadly apparent that its only reliable asset is the gorgeous view. Read full review
20
Washington PostRita Kempley
A bungled screen version of Louis de Bernieres' cult novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin was doomed from the moment Nicolas Cage was cast as the "life-devouring," Puccini-loving hero. Read full review
10
SlateDavid Edelstein
Probably the most horrifying stuff I've seen all week. Read full review
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