‘The Captive’ Review: ‘Don Quixote’s’ Author Becomes the Hero in a Handsome Historical Fiction

“The Captive” offers the intriguing concept of “Don Quixote’s” author viewed through a lens more redolent of “Arabian Nights,” spinning tales to keep himself alive while a hostage of Moors in Algiers. But the known facts about this murky biographical chapter are vague, permitting writer-director Alejandro Amenabar much imaginative license, though he makes less of the storytelling-within-storytelling aspect than you initially expect. What emerges is a curious if entertaining bio-fiction with Miguel de Cervantes as protagonist in a convoluted costume intrigue, like a homoerotic spin on ye olde Western exoticizing of the Arab world– well-toned male bodies in the hammam substituting here for the traditional, scantily-clad Hollywood harem girls.

Those not expecting a more straightforward portrait of the man or his myths — Don Q. is little more than slyly referenced — should find enjoyment in this handsome, leisurely Spain-Italy coproduction. In the end, though, its offbeat approach doesn’t quite…