Speak Chinese - Catch a Fire

ENTERTAINMENT / Review










Catch a Fire

By Jessica Reaves
Updated: 2006-10-30 15:39


This seems like an odd moment to release a movie about South African
apartheid. A full 15 years after the scourge ended, there are more
pressing issues (AIDS and its orphans) facing the country. Of course, if
"Catch a Fire" were a better movie, rather than a well-intentioned but
emotionally flat personal history, such timing would be a moot point.

Director Phillip Noyce ("Rabbit-Proof Fence," "The Quiet American") has
re-created the bleak days when being black in South Africa was enough to
get you arrested, tortured and, if you survived, shipped off to prison on
the infamous Robben Island, where you were at least in good company (most
notably Nelson Mandela). If you were even suspected of being a member of
the African National Congress (ANC), you could count on all of the above
miseries befalling you at some point.

Patrick Chamusso, a real-life revolutionary played with stoic blandness
by Derek Luke, was just trying to get through his days, enjoy his family
and coach a soccer team. Living a studiously apolitical life with his
wife and two children in Secunda, east of Johannesburg, Chamusso had just
become a foreman at the local oil refinery and was not anxious to reverse
this ascension with any talk of unrest or rebellion.

Unforeseen events, including wrongful accusations of terrorism, transform
him into a freedom fighter willing to give up his home and his family to
unravel the white majority rule. As he becomes increasingly embedded in
the group, his insider knowledge of the oil refinery proves invaluable to
ANC functionaries.

Chamusso's nemesis is anti-terrorism chief Nic Vos (Tim Robbins, in a
one-note performance consisting primarily of clenched jaw and unblinking
eyes). During Chamusso's first incarceration, Vos tries everything in his
arsenal to break his prisoner--the good cop thing, the family man thing,
the tough love thing. Throughout, Robbins maintains that single facial
expression, which is an impressive physical feat but doesn't make for a
particularly compelling character.

Likewise, Luke, who has proven himself a solid, even first-rate actor
("Antwone Fisher," "Friday Night Lights") is hemmed in by a role that
tries to toe the line between saint and fallible human being, but, like
so many other unabashedly deferential biopics, errs on the side of the
former.

Noyce is an impressive director, and his lively pacing, combined with
buoyant traditional music and, fittingly, Bob Marley tunes, keep interest
levels reasonably high. It's just that the action, political intrigue and
marital tensions (which prove critical as the story unfolds) never quite
coalesce into a compelling whole. The film, which was made with the full
cooperation of the people portrayed (the screenplay was penned by the
daughter of an ANC leader) and was shot on location in South Africa and
Mozambique, was clearly undertaken with the best of intentions but winds
up feeling pat and manipulative. The horrors of apartheid deserve a
better treatment than this.

















Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours








Today's Top News




� Nigerian plane crash kills 99, Muslim leader dies

� 'China needs to play bigger WTO role'

� ASEAN, Chinese leaders fete relations

� US army monitors soldiers' blogs

� 98 feared dead in Nigerian plane crash





Top Entertaiment News




� Nicole Kidman has no hard feelings towards Tom Cruis

� Michael Jackson to appear at awards show

�
Match date means Becks will miss Cruise

� Shakira and De La Rua 'waiting to wed'

� Nicole Kidman's dad helping her through hubby's rehab battle








Alibaba is the largest B2B marketplace in the world. Source model ship,
wooden puzzle, one-piece toilet, RC hovercraft, photo album, prom dress,
pocket bike, Vaginal Speculum, Samurai Sword, String Panty and PVC Pipe.





Learn Chinese, Chinese Online Class, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet