If this film had been made by a fundamentalist Christian group lead by the crackpot Koran burning Florida Pastor, I would have believed it. Except for the well known actors, the whole film seemed like one of those church funded efforts usually made with 'C' list players. Let me list some of the flaws: The color was awful ranging from almost normal to a washed out blue/green tint to almost no color at all.Havey Keitel was miscast, and rather than a wealthy cosmopolitan gem dealer able to attract a beautiful young woman, he looked like a seedy old panhandler of the kind you cross the street to avoid. The bedroom scenes were just nauseating.Did anyone ever shave? Some might find a few days beard growth attractive, I just find it scruffy.The dubbing was poor. Jordi Molla went from a soft European accent to a sharp American accent in mid sentence several times.The plot was ridiculous. Not only for the desk pounding propaganda, but the little things, such as why did F. Murry Abraham's character need to be on the ferry to activate the cell phone. He could have done it from the shore in Dover. In an early scene, two terrorists leave their bags under seats in the airport before the shootout with security. What happened to the bags. Were they disarmed before blowing up. Even a five year old could blow holes in this plot.The lack of subtitles or captions made the dialogue hard to follow for the hearing impaired such as myself. Likewise, the lack of a 'making of' featurette.Not really a flaw, as you can switch off at the end, but the very lengthy credits which mentioned everyone who had supplied anything and everything for the film in the way of props: e.g. coffee maker, dispenser, hotel furniture, curtains, table ware, and on and on. I am used to hairdressers, make up artists and musicians being credited, and also locations, but this list was ludicrous.When the best thing you can say about a film is that the singer heard in the opening scene was good, and the scenes of Cappadocia were beautiful, it does not say much for the film overall.

The story in the movie is kind of lame, and despite having two good actors, one of which who won best supporting actor for Amadeus, the movie is poorly acted to the point of having stilted dialog and a soap-opera feel to it. Scenes with dubbing are also terrible, why not just have those scenes either in the film's native Italian or just leave the Italian accented English voice track alone. This movie does kind of go overboard hinting that all Islam breeds terrorism when, in fact, the vast majority of terrorists are of the Wahabist sect (a misinterpretation of Islam based upon the Haditha). And who ever heard of not being able to photograph Muslims or Dervishes...that's ridiculous. Watch this movie if you absolutely must, but I had to stop it after 40 mins cause it was so bad. The transfer is grainy and blurry and some of the camera work is suspect.

This is a forty minute TV plot (plus commercial breaks to fill the hour slot) spread out so thinly it's wearisome. No need for spoilers in any comment, anyone of us could have written this tripe in our sleep. The clichés, the stilted dialogue (sounds better in the dubbed Italian version perhaps but then Italian dubbing actors are good - one even made Larry Hagman sound convincing long ago!)and the Colosseum as a backdrop when we know where the action is taking place! Corny. Keitel of course rises above it and F. Murray Abrahams has his usual "stage presence" but the lines don't stand up. Mollà is sometimes out of sync. and I think he may have muffed the reading on set and had to dub it back in.

I'd love to agree with those who liked this film, cos I've a soft spot for the director's previous films, which, taking their inspiration from controversial realities, spun plausible conspiracy-theory thrillers (Piazza delle 5 Lune) or fairly accurate reconstructions (Vajont), but Il Mercante delle Pietre, despite a decent cast and the director's always enjoyable zooming and whooshing camera-work and clever use of sound, is a big let-down. The plot has got holes you could drive a bus through, the Islam-bashing, which may or may not be justified (see other people's comments re this), is reheated and tiresome Fallaci-lite, and the unfolding drama clunks and creaks when it needs to whisk the viewer along smoothly. Add to all this the worst CGI this side of Titanic and there's plenty of reasons not to bother with this, which really is a pity cos once or twice it all comes together in the film, but just when you think it's going to really take off, it all falls to bits again.