Review of Il Divo (2008) by Jake C — 12 Nov 2018

For a movie where I only occasionally had a basic level of knowledge to follow what was going on-not a fault of the film's, nor of mine, but just an incompatibility of audience and art-I rarely was confused or entirely lost.

As ambiguous, byzantine, and culturally contained as the political machinations may be, the story is nonetheless so compellingly filmed, convincingly performed and confidently shot, that the movie easily captures the viewer's attention and imagination, if not always their comprehension.

In that way, the film in effect reflects its central subject, whose mild-mannered Machiavellianism seemed shrouded and overshadowed by the spectacle of his perpetual political prominence-"Il Divo" could just as easily be translated as "the celebrity" as it could "the divine"-the most effective way of concealing corruption being to stand in the spotlight, a point American leaders have taken note of, as well.