Text size:

'Miracle at St. Anna'

Rating:

BY RAFER GUZMÁN | rafer.guzman@newsday.com

September 26, 2008

On Aug. 12, 1944, a Nazi battalion in the Tuscan village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema gunned down 560 men, women and children, a massacre that is re-enacted, along with a seemingly divine event, in "Miracle at St. Anna," an uneven blend of realism and fantasy. The movie is both vivid and baffling - which is to say, it was made by Spike Lee.

The film opens in 1983, when a postal worker wordlessly shoots a customer in the chest. As a young reporter delves into the story, we find ourselves wading through a river with an all-black Army regiment whose numbers will soon be whittled to four.

After one soldier saves a wounded Italian boy (Matteo Sciabordi), the group seeks help in a nearby village. It's quite picturesque, with a particularly nice view of the beautiful Renata (Valentina Cervi). But others soon show up, including a Resistance fighter (Pierfrancesco Favino), his shifty-eyed partner (Sergio Albelli) and a German deserter.

"Miracle," based on screenwriter James McBride's novel, seems to mark the first major World War II film with an all-black lead cast, but the characters are fairly stock beneath their skin. Sam Train (Omar Benson Miller) is the gentle giant; Aubrey Stamps (Derek Luke, "Antwone Fisher") the no-nonsense leader; Bishop (Michael Ealy, "Sleeper Cell") looks out for Number One; and Hector Negron (Laz Alonso) will become that quiet postal clerk.

There are moments of tension and emotional power, but Lee's jarring stylistic conceits are distracting. Oddly, people in 1983 talk like 1940s detectives, using slang like "gumflappers." Lee's camera slips into a time warp, too, zeroing in on swastikas while the orchestra signals danger. (The otherwise gorgeous score is from Terence Blanchard.)

The occasional sermon on race was to be expected, but the film ends with a weird lecture on safety belts. It's one more addition to this memorable, and memorably strange, epic.

(R)

PLOT During World War II, four black soliders are trapped behind enemy lines after one saves an Italian boy.

CAST Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller

LENGTH 2:37

PLAYING AT Area theaters

BOTTOM LINE An uneven combination of clear-eyed realism and stylistic whimsy.