The story should have political and socioeconomic resonances but it plays more like a soap opera, flitting from scene to scene with an ever-increasing sense of melodrama.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 1, 2021

If you are willing to treat Bel Canto as a drama rather than a political thriller or action film, then you stand to be rewarded.

| Original Score: 3 / 5 | Jul 27, 2020

A deeply disappointing drama.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 23, 2020

This is emotionally affecting at times, but writer-director Paul Weitz... adopts a prosaic approach that abandons the source novel's lyrical persuasions.

| Mar 4, 2020

... injects moments of dark humor to keep things lively, although the lack of tonal consistency and narrative context prevents a deeper emotional connection.

| Dec 27, 2019

bullet fire is a welcome relief

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 7, 2019

Fine performances lead the film, which has an original and engaging subject but falls short of catching the high emotional heights it seeks.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 4, 2019

Bel canto literally translates to "beautiful singing", but there's nothing beautiful to be found in the titular film. A woefully written, poorly paced hostage thriller which struggles to hold its faltering note.

| Original Score: 1/5 | May 6, 2019

A hybrid of political thriller and earthy drama, this film's tone is so odd that it keeps the audience off balance, which makes it compulsively watchable.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 3, 2019

From all the storylines that could develop, the film chooses to have terrorists and prisoners discover their common humanity and build a rapport. It's arbitrary and unconvincing.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 29, 2019

Well acted but lacking substance.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 29, 2019

The film struggles to translate the printed work's slowburn pace; on screen it becomes a dragging narrative that has difficulty holding viewers' attention.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 28, 2019

Stinky is the only word to describe this earnest thriller in which a famous American opera singer learns life lessons (and gets jiggy) in a hostage crisis.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 28, 2019

Bel Canto pushes a hard message about cultural misconceptions and boasts a promising and diverse cast, but only really makes an impact in the first and final minutes.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 28, 2019

There's a tepid, cross-cultural romantic comedy trapped inside this televisual hostage drama. The reliable Moore is trapped too.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 28, 2019

The only hostage was me wanting to get out of the cinema.

| Apr 26, 2019

It's the world-famous soprano Renée Fleming, and Moore is lip-syncing. And the effect is horrific. It's like a drag act, but not. And it's the final nail in the coffin of sweet intention and witless execution.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 26, 2019

This tonal misfire never hits the notes of drama and romance it aims for with its ickily problematic terrorist-hostage relationships. Facile and uncomfortably implausible, emotionally and practically.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2019

I... spent most of the film chuckling in all the wrong places.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2019

A film which promises a great deal and disappoints on just about every level.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2019