‘Bel Canto’

A brilliant, celebrated performer accepts a low-profile gig in unfamiliar environs, only to be trapped as the situation falls apart around her. But enough about Julianne Moore agreeing to star in “Bel Canto,” and let’s keep the focus on Paul Weitz’s po-faced hostage melodrama itself, which strands a world-renowned American soprano in the crossfire between an oppressive government and desperate insurgents in an unspecified South American nation.

With an enviable international ensemble — including Moore, Ken Watanabe and Sebastian Koch — all looking variously out of sorts, only an unseen Renee Fleming, who lends her gorgeously shaded vocals to the leading lady’s lips, emerges on song.

The superfan responsible for pulling platinum-voiced Roxane Coss (Moore) so far outside her usual flight path is wealthy Tokyo-based industrialist Hosokawa (Watanabe). Before we can get to this heartwarming romance, however, there’s a revolution to acknowledge, as armed guerrilla rebels violently disrupt Coss’s performance, shooting some attendees dead and taking the rest hostage until their demands — chiefly, the release of their jailed comrades — are met.

Meanwhile, a dogged Red Cross negotiator

Messner (Koch) attempts to defuse the situation as it drags across weeks. The middle stretch of this pleasingly multilingual movie sags shapelessly, as the hostages and even their captors gradually bond with music — of course.

Between all these tender heart-to-hearts and dewy-eyed musical interludes, it’s easy to forget that the embassy, full of private corners for lovers to nestle in, is actually under siege. Indeed, were it not for some heavily underlined dramatic foreshadowing at the outset — “It’s opera, so in the end everyone dies,” Roxane merrily observes — the eventual drastic downturn of the situation might even come as a shock.

No MPAArating

Running time: 1:41