Bel Canto

Bel Canto centers on Roxanne Coss, a celebrated American opera soprano who travels to a South American country under military rule to give a private performance. The concert is arranged for the birthday of Katsumi Hosokawa, a wealthy Japanese industrialist, and the guests include diplomats and political figures. Partway through the evening, armed guerrillas storm the mansion and take everyone inside hostage, demanding the release of imprisoned comrades. The president they had hoped to capture is not among those present. As the standoff drags on, captors and captives are forced to coexist, and unexpected relationships form between them.

Paul Weitz directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Anthony Weintraub, and produced it with Caroline Baron and Andrew Miano. The film is the eleventh of the thirteen features Weitz has directed, following Grandma and preceding Fatherhood. Julianne Moore plays Roxanne, with Ken Watanabe as Hosokawa, Sebastian Koch as Messner, Ryo Kase as Gen, and Tenoch Huerta Mejía and Noé Hernández as guerrilla commanders. It runs 100 minutes and blends drama, music, romance and thriller elements.

Bel Canto was released in September 2018 and took about 177 million dollars worldwide. Audiences were lukewarm: on IMDb it holds 5.5 out of 10 from roughly 4,100 votes, and on TMDB 5.4 out of 10 from 141 votes. A critics' rating of 5.4 out of 10 from 73 reviews places it in similar territory, with neither critics nor audiences rating it highly.