Synopsis
A famous opera singer is held hostage in South America by a guerrilla rebel group after performing at a Japanese businessman's lavish birthday party. Unexpected bonds are forged in the standoff that ensues.
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Cast
- Julianne MooreRoxanne Cross
- Ken WatanabeKatsumi Hosokawa
- Sebastian KochMessner
- Ryo KaseGen
- Tenoch Huerta MejíaComandante Benjamin ( Benjas)
- Noé HernándezComandante Alfredo
- Johnny OrtizGilbert
- María Mercedes CoroyCarmen
- Eddie MartinezRuben Ochoa
- Christophe LambertSimon Thibault
Recommendations
- 83
IndieWire
Like a grand opera, Bel Canto weaves many stories into one sweeping epic. - 80
Los Angeles Times
Swelling with humanity and romance like the crescendo of an aria, “Bel Canto” is a moving meditation on the power of love, music and proximity. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
Director Paul Weitz is mostly known for lighter, more observational stories like "About a Boy" and "Mozart in the Jungle," and the strongest moments in Bel Canto are the small ones. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
The film benefits from the fine cast and from many sharp and poignant moments. It's an impressive achievement technically as well. - 50
Wall Street Journal
The most serious flaw, and one that will irk a lot of Bel Canto enthusiasts, is the too-obvious lip-syncing of Ms. Moore to Ms. Fleming’s glorious singing. They simply don’t match up, and the music takes place at points in the film when viewers really don’t want to be thrown off. But thrown off they will be. - 45
Film Journal International
The film—Weitz’s first since 2015’s indie Grandma—feels a little cheap and shortchanged. - 40
The New York Times
A movie that, for all its operatic allusions and actorly expertise, feels dismayingly passionless. - 40
Variety
Between its minimal setup and frantic denouement, the middle stretch of this pleasingly multilingual movie sags shapelessly, as the hostages and even their captors gradually bond across cultural and linguistic barriers, with music — of course — as the language that binds them.
