In case you haven't noticed already, I am a huge admirer of director/writer Nae Caranfil and his films; he has made some of the most intelligent, sophisticated, amusing and beautiful films of the last twenty years. But I am a bit at a loss with his latest pic, a glamorous historic thriller/romance/heist movie.

Mai aproape de lună/Closer to the Moon takes a spectacular true event and turns it into purest Hollywood fantasy. In 1959 a group of six Jewish intellectuals robbed the Romanian National Bank, allegedly in order to help their friends in Israel but also as an act of undermining an oppressive and increasingly antisemitic regime.

Caught by the Secret Police Securitate, they were forced to reenact the robbery in a propagandist cautionary film meant to show what can happen if one disrespects state authority. After the shoot, most of them were executed. Caranfil chooses to ignore the more serious aspects of the story and focuses on the suave and intellectual group of friends planning the heist and on their personal relationships.

As usual, the dialogue is sharp and fun, and the film looks and sounds beautiful. Closer to the Moon is undoubtedly great fun to watch, engaging, and a joyous ride despite its serious subject . But it's also achingly sugar-coated and mainstream. Caranfil has never been a director of harsh realities and rugged style but Closer to the Moon is amazingly cute and harmless, a fairytale shot in bright colors.

I've watched Closer to the Moon in its rough cut at last year's Transilvania Film Festival and the reactions were as mixed as the audience. I assume the biggest reason for irritation, also on my part, is the choice to shoot it in English; apparently due to the fact that financing is mainly non-Romanian.

The cast is super-starry and my surprise was not small to see Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Zero Dark Thirty) and Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) in a story set in Bucharest but despite their fair efforts, they seem out of place and story. The worst thing though is that they often sound and act stagey and that the English clashes with the Romanian setting and subject matter. Interestingly, this was the main drawback for Romanian viewers and less for the international festival guests so I am really curious how the film will be received abroad once it finds a distributor.

The episode has been filmed before by Alexandru Solomon and the documentary Marele jaf comunist/The Great Communist Bank Robbery is a fascinating, revelatory film. It's probably not fair to compare a fictional, romanticized approach to a documentary, as fictional as some of its elements may be, but it's a comparison hard to avoid and as far as subject adaptation, directorial maturity and audience involvement go, Solomon hits all the right buttons while Caranfil, atypically, stumbles more than once.

Closer to the Moon is currently running in cinemas across the country and despite its flaws I'm sure it's still far superior to most of the other titles on the program, so drop by if you have the chance, entertainment is guaranteed.

By Ioana Moldovan, columnist, ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com