'Catch a Fire' has its heart in the right place but there is a distinct feeling of time having passed it by.
Director Phillip Noyce sets his film squarely in the early 1980’s, in midst of Apartheid rule in South Africa. It is said that people who don’t know history are condemned to repeat its mistakes but there is a general air of mustiness to this tale of the making of a terrorist.
As the film ironically points out – a terrorist is defined as anyone who disagrees with a particular government’s policy.
The film also saves you the problem of making any moral decisions: South African Secret police – bad. Hardworking, family loving black man – good.
Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) is a good “boy”. He is happily married, has two lovely small daughters and has risen to the post of supervisor in the gas plant where he works. He is apolitical and always addresses the white man as “boss.” In his spare time he is a dedicated soccer coach.
Patrick is away from home when his plant is sabotaged. He has no explanation for the missing evening. In fact, he has been visiting another woman who has born him a child.
The Police Security Branch, under Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), arrest him and he spends many weeks being tortured. In an effort to get him to talk, they also arrest his wife and beat her. When they are released, Patrick runs away to join the African National Congress freedom fighters – abandoning his family.
As Vos, Robbins is a compassionate monster announcing to his prisoner that it’s Sunday and there’s to be no torture today. Instead he cleans him up and takes him home for Sunday dinner with his family. Robbins nails the soft cadences of the South African accent but has more problem with his character.
Noyce realizes that if Vos is only evil, he really hasn’t got a film so he tries to give Robbins a moral ambivalence. But mostly we get a passive Robbins staring into the camera as it moves into his inexpressive face and watery blue eyes. What IS going on in that man’s mind?
Luke is considerably better as he slowly realizes that change must come. When Chamusso is pushed too far by his repugnant captors, he leaves his family and the film becomes a cat-and-mouse thriller as he fights back, becoming a one-man wrecking crew.
Noyce is an interesting director. An Aussie, he made slick big budget leviathans in America (‘Clear and Present Danger’) but more recently seems to be paying for his sins by turning out sociopolitical dramas – ‘Rabbit Proof Fence,’ ‘The Quiet American.’
‘Catch a Fire’ shows his tight visual and narrative abilities. The film is written by Shawn Slovo and co-produced by Robyn Slovo both children of ANC firebrand Joe Slovo.
At the end of the film we see Nelson Mandela’s triumphant return to his people and it is a real heart catching moment. Later, the real Chamusso appears. He’s now running a South African home for orphans.
‘Catch a Fire’ is a simplistic but well made film that keeps the interest but you can’t help feel that we’ve seen all this before.
Opens October 27. MPAA: Rating PG 13.
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