MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Mediterraneo’ Meanders in a Sea of Sexual Fantasy

“Mediterraneo” (at the Hillcrest Cinemas) is warmhearted, good-natured and gently humorous, and that may be enough to send some people home satisfied and cheered up.

Others are just as likely to realize that these qualities cannot disguise the film’s essential triteness and tediousness.

In any event, director Gabriele Salvatores and writer Vincenzo Monteleone are shameless in their heavy reliance on the famous Italian easygoing, life-embracing charm, buttressed by a gorgeous setting and Giancarlo Bigazzi’s seductive, insistent score.

Movies from “Never on Sunday” to “Shirley Valentine” have perpetuated the screen myth that Greece and its islands in particular are an earthly paradise for the foreigner who can bask in the sun while indulging in easily available sex. Set during World War II, “Mediterraneo,” as primarily an old-fashioned male fantasy, continues the tradition.

Eight nice, pleasant-looking Italian soldiers are sent on an expeditionary mission to a remote, idyllic Aegean isle of no strategic importance--and are promptly forgotten. Most of them easily adapt to their new environment, settling into a lazy routine of occasional sports and regular sex with a beautiful and accommodating young prostitute (Vanna Barba), brought from Athens by the Germans, who have now fled, taking with them the island’s young men. What they’ve got is Club Med for real.

All the men are such regular types that none is of particular note. To be sure, there is a skinny, intense guy (Giuseppe Cederna) who wins the prostitute’s heart by not going to bed with her. New, vastly improved subtitles supplied by Miramax portray the husky sergeant (Diego Abatantuono), the group’s natural leader, as more reflective than in the poorly subtitled version that received a best foreign film Oscar nomination.

There’s lots of vague thought about the need to run away from society’s ills, but “Mediterraneo” is far more sentimental than substantial. It is patent nonsense, for example, to assert that World War II really changed nothing in Italy; just for starters, what about the defeat of fascism? The film is also meandering, still slow to get under way despite Miramax having trimmed 12 minutes from its original 102-minute running time.

“Mediterraneo” (Times-rated Mature for nudity, love-making) might not seem so shallow had the filmmakers taken at least a passing interest in the natives, who are treated mainly as extras (or sexual partners). It misses the opportunity to balance humor with sufficient pathos and poignance, which could have made all the difference.

‘Mediterraneo’

Diego Abatantuono: Sgt. Lo Russo

Giuseppe Cederna: Farina

Vanna Barba: Vasillissa

Claudio Bigagli: Lt. Montini

A Miramax Films release of a Penta Film production. Director Gabrieles Salvatores. Producers Gianni Minervini, Mario Cecchi Gori, Vittorio Cecchi Gori. Screenplay by Vincenzo Monteleone. Cinematographer Italo Petriccione. Editor Nino Baragali. Music Giancarlo Bigazzi. Art director Thalia Istikopoulos. In Italian, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Times-rated Mature (some sex and nudity).