Directed by Euzhan Palcy. Starring Donald Sutherland, Zakes Mokae, Jürgen Prochnow, Janet Suzman, Marlon Brando, Winston Ntshona, Susan Sarandon, Leonard Maguire, Susannah Harker, Thoko Ntshinga, Rowen Elmes, Paul Brooke, Michael Gambon. (R)
Apartheid drama about a white South African teacher (Sutherland) whose gardener (and gardener's son) turn up dead after being arrested and finds himself swept up seeking the truth and justice for their murders. Starts out well, earnest and angry and condemnatory, but in the second half, the narrative loses focus with its investigative thriller elements clashing with heavy-handed (but well-meaning) political tract; the last fifteen minutes or so are so inauthentic and melodramatic that they're downright dopey. Mokae and Brando (in a nicely oblique but magnetic supporting turn) stand out in the cast; Prochnow wisely underplays the villainous caricature he's saddled with, while Sarandon's role is a dimensionless prop. A reworking of the same material with more focus on the lives and perspectives of the black characters (and a far shrewder ending) would be most welcome.
55/100
Apartheid drama about a white South African teacher (Sutherland) whose gardener (and gardener's son) turn up dead after being arrested and finds himself swept up seeking the truth and justice for their murders. Starts out well, earnest and angry and condemnatory, but in the second half, the narrative loses focus with its investigative thriller elements clashing with heavy-handed (but well-meaning) political tract; the last fifteen minutes or so are so inauthentic and melodramatic that they're downright dopey. Mokae and Brando (in a nicely oblique but magnetic supporting turn) stand out in the cast; Prochnow wisely underplays the villainous caricature he's saddled with, while Sarandon's role is a dimensionless prop. A reworking of the same material with more focus on the lives and perspectives of the black characters (and a far shrewder ending) would be most welcome.
55/100