Review: Bel Canto

A superb and delicately rendered adaptation of Ann Patchett's 2001 novel, Bel Canto is a lyrical expression of how love, understanding and music can connect us despite our differences.

Inspired by a real-life hostage situation that took place in Lima, Peru, the film begins in Tokyo, 1996 as opera enthusiast and Japanese industrialist Katsumi Hosokawa (Ken Watanabe) and his faithful interpreter Gen (Ryo Kase) make their way to an unnamed South American country. Ostensibly there to discuss a development deal, Hosokawa's main interest is in attending the private concert in which his favourite opera singer, American soprano Roxanne Coss (Julianne Moore), is giving for the president and his specially invited guests. The dinner party is to be held at Vice President Ruben Ochoa's (Eddie Martinez) home and, once again, Ochoa is forced to make excuses for the president, who would rather watch his beloved telenovela than ensure Hosokawa's business.

The president's absence proves hugely problematic for, no sooner than Roxanne begins her performance than a group of armed rebels storm in, take the guests hostage, and demand to see the president. Realising he's not there, the rebel leader Benjamin (Tenoch Huerta) decides to switch tactics - he tells Swiss negotiator Joachim Messner (Sebastian Koch) that he'll let the hostages go once the president releases all the jailed political prisoners, one of whom is Benjamin's wife. As a show of good faith, Benjamin allows the women, children, the elderly, and the ailing to leave, though, sensing Roxanne's importance, pulls her back at the last minute.

From thereon in, the film strikes a fine balance between hostage drama, love story and fragile yet deeply felt alliances. Over the course of the days and weeks that follow, the elites and the rebels form something resembling a family. The hostages play card games, pitch in with household duties, and come to look upon their captors as more than mere inhuman animals. "You remind me of my son when he was sixteen," the French ambassador (Christopher Lambert) wistfully says to the rebel pointing a gun at his head. Roxanne chatters on about her failed marriages to another rebel Carmen (María Mercedes Coroy), who develops an attraction to Gen. At one point, everyone goes outside to the private gardens and play football, laughing and cheering, and one could be well forgiven for believing them to be a group of family and friends enjoying a day out together.

There's a beautiful romance that blossoms between Roxanne and Hosokawa, whom she initially regards as another patron to please but who soon moves her with his deeply kind nature. When they are first taken hostage and told to lie on the floor, he offers her his jacket as a pillow. When her accompanist is accidentally killed by the youngest rebel, he wipes the blood from her hand with his handkerchief. Though the language barrier between them is bridged with help from Gen, they truly speak to one another with their eyes and spirit. It's wonderful to watch as is the whole of Bel Canto, which is deceptively simple in execution but operatic in emotional impact and resonance.

Bel Canto

Directed by: Paul Weitz

Written by: Paul Weitz, Anthony Weintraub; based on the novel by Ann Patchett

Starring: Julianne Moore, Ken Watanabe, Sebastian Koch, Ryo Kase, Tenoch Huerta, Christopher Lambert, María Mercedes Coroy, Ethan Simpson, Eddie Martinez, Elsa Zylberstein, Johnny Ortiz