Cicero

I broke 3 stars because the film isn't historically accurate.

At least this film tries to keep the audience guessing...maybe. Deeply emotionally in war scenes. This film is tricky because the lead actor (a spy) is actually trying to keep a country out of WW II. This comes through only after the fact of the action...kind of unique to say the least. The back story romance is kind of the usual in a war movie, so nothing unique there. Overall the story was interesting, even if unorthodox in the telling. This movie fills the void of history how the Ottoman empire remained neutral during WWII. Apparently history did not repeat itself because of one man's efforts to keep Turkey neutral, or so the story goes.

A very brilliant story has been wasted by the director. The story of spy Elyasa Banza is an excellent opportunity to create a realmaster. However, in Çiçero, acting performance are under-level, the scenario has lots of faults and thus, fails to create needed tension, everyone speaks Turkish but foreigner characaters very randomly starts to speaks their mother language by inadequate pronunciation etc... Therefore, Çiçero not only wasted a beneficial material but also failed to manage the level of an overall popular movie.

It is a very compelling story of a historical person who played an important role in Ankara during second war. The casting of Erdal Besikcioglu and Burcu Biricik deserves 8/10 rating. Co-acting cast is definitely at 5/10 rating. The movie sounds as if it had a bug during the sound mixage. There is an echo during dialogues and we even asked Movie Theater if the problem is with their sound system. They rechecked and confirmed that it is the original playback. Also some shooting places are not so realistic and it feels like it is shot in a studio environment.

After the film, "what did I watch?" I asked myself. The film seems to have exaggerated. Erdal Besikcioglu played well, but the fiction is a bit overstated.