Le Lieutenant Ottoman

I really wanted to love this movie completely. For me, half the actors were phenomenal and half were not. Michiel Huisman was absolutely phenomenal in the role of The Ottoman Lieutenant. His passion shown through in the entire performance. I did not care for the lead actress Hera Hilmar in this role. She came across as dull, uninspired, unbelievable and with flat affect & tone to her voice and performance, in my opinion. I do not know her other work, but I was uninspired by her performance here. This should have been an extremely romantic and epic movie but Michiel should not have to carry it himself. In addition, I did like Ben Kingsley's role, but did not care for Josh Hartnett. If the lead actors had been evenly matched and evenly phenomenal then I would have rated this movie better.

This is a great story, however the acting isn't. The female lead is not believable & it could have been a much better performance or casting choice.

Female lead has limited emotional range, and i don't quite see why an Icelandic actor with an accent was cast as an American. We have A LOT of American actresses with farbetter emotional range that could've served this movie well.

While some reviewers cannot see beyond the work of the actors and director in a project, others pay to escape life and be immersed in a world we cannot otherwise visit. The Ottoman Lieutenant is a grand, sweeping movie that has war as its backdrop. This movie is not a documentary. The artists who worked to bring us this bit of fiction immersed themselves beautifully within the project, and their hard work stands out, much like the Merchant Ivory films. The movie itself does not ask for a review of its accuracy, it simply asks that we put aside the trappings of our present environment to imagine a different vista. If you are interested in enjoying beauty for its own sake, then you will enjoy this film. If you are still intent on reliving the atrocities of the past, then l suggest you stick to documentaries, and only those with which you wholeheartedly agree. - Chipper F. Xavier, Esq.

Jeff Stockwell provided the screenplay and Joseph Ruben directed this slice of history from the early stages of WW I as it encroached on the Ottoman Empire, driving a split between the Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks as exacerbated by the inclusion of the Russian forces. It is a well-considered examination of the brutality of war, the collapse of both the Ottoman Empire and the decimation/genocide of the Armenians, and the role America played in the drama in providing a safe haven hospital in the midst of the battles. It is also a love story that deals with the same conflicts – religious differences, ancient customs, the then 'secondary role' of women, and the survival of contested love.

After her brother's death from tuberculosis, young nurse Lillie Rowe, a beautiful, strong- willed woman (Hera Hilmar), who, frustrated by ongoing injustice at home and her Philadelphia parents' prejudices (Paul Barrett, Jessica Turner), leaves the United States after meeting Jude Josh Hartnett), an American doctor who runs a remote medical mission within the Ottoman Empire - a world both exotic and dangerous, and on the brink of what is about to become the first World War. There, she works as a nurse, and finds her loyalty to Jude and the mission's founder Dr Woodruff (Ben Kingsley) tested when she falls in love with their perceived enemy, Ismail (Michiel Huisman), a lieutenant in the Ottoman Imperial Army. Now, with invading army forces at their doorstep, and the world about to plunge into all-out war, she must make a decision if she wants to be what other people want her to be, or to be herself.

The development of the story is well balanced as we see the brutality of the Turks slaughtering Armenians, the prejudices of Americans who fail to respect the value and stature of women endangering their lives to save wounded patients, the artificial barrier between Christians and Muslims in time of war and in the concept of love, and one of the reasons the story plays well is that instead of stereotypes portraying these misconceptions, the writer and director have instead placed those challenging differences in the characters of their story. In many ways this is a love story that addresses all the issues so rampant during WW I. For this viewer it works. Add the extraordinary photography by Daniel Aranyó and the musical score by Geoff Zanelli and the result is a memorable reenactment of a moment in history whose impact remains.