Synopsis
Lillie, a determined American woman, ventures overseas to join Dr. Jude at a remote medical mission in the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). However, Lillie soon finds herself at odds with Jude and the mission’s founder, Woodruff, when she falls for the titular military man, Ismail, just as the war is about to erupt.
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Cast
- Michiel HuismanIsmail
- Hera HilmarLillie
- Josh HartnettJude
- Ben KingsleyWoodruff
- Haluk BilginerKhalil Bey
- Selçuk YöntemMelih Pasha
- Paul BarrettMr. Rowe
- Affif Ben BadraChristapor
- Brian CaspeDoctor
- Begum BurianNurse
Recommendations
- 40
Village Voice
This movie's got everything except gravity or a sense of emotional coherence. - 40
The Hollywood Reporter
The by-the-numbers story never achieves its aimed-for grandeur or intensity, and the striking Turkish locations prove far more interesting than the characters. - 40
Los Angeles Times
This well-intentioned, sumptuously shot tale of love and war, directed by Joseph Ruben, lacks the emotional depth and romantic grandeur to fulfill its epic ambitions. - 38
Movie Nation
What we’re left with is a botched romance saddled with an over-arching, over-reaching message, one that only the Turks will be quick to embrace. - 37
Washington Post
Morality is hardly the main concern of The Ottoman Lieutenant. Instead, it’s content with hackneyed romance and soaring strings. - 30
Variety
Though the film ultimately hinges on a “forbidden” Muslim-Christian romance, almost nothing is made of the enormous hurdles that would be present in this time and place. - 30
The New York Times
The Ottoman Lieutenant is an overwrought nurse romance merged with a history lesson, a combination that is hard to take as seriously as the film wants to be taken. - 25
Slant Magazine
More conspicuous than its rote melodrama is the way the film elides the concurrent genocide of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman forces.
