Review of Cosi (1996) by Cal ( — 19 Nov 2007

One of Australia's best plays is transferred to screen in a good Aussie production, but in my opinion not true enough to the original play (Even though the script was written by the same person who wrote the play).

The cast of the film is largely the original cast of the play when it was performed for the first time on stage so it's a real treat (David Wenham is perfect as Doug, I could barely recognise him!).

The plot of the movie follows Lewis (Mendelsohn), who is a Sydney amateur stage play director who is looking for work. For his first experience he is hired to be a director of a stage play acted out by a bunch of mental patients from a mental asylum.

He is greeted by a mental patient named Roy (Otto) who insists that the play they do is 'Così fan tutte', a play by Mozart. Considering the fact that the whole play is in Italian, it's an opera, none of the performers can sing opera and the orchestra is frequently comatose, this is going to be an interesting experience.

People who know the play will smile at the many lines taken directly from the play, but those who love the original play a lot and can't imagine it being any different will most likely loathe the film.

Overall the film was good and rather funny, but it was a wasted opportunity; the original cast would have done superbly acting out a script more faithful to the source material.