Catch A Fire Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)October 29th, 2006
Catch a Fire
reviewed by Sam Osborn
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Tim Robbins, Derek Luke
Screenplay: Shawn Slovo
MPAA Classification: PG-13 (thematic material involving torture and abuse, violence and brief language)
Freedom is forwarded by the engine of inspiration. Without it, freedom is only a word that, in the case of Catch a Fire, cannot be believed. The film is a project mined from the same vein as last year's The Constant Gardener, where a heavy-handed message sings overtones to a rugged story of love and personal struggle. But in The Constant Gardener, the chords of Justin Quayle's sorrow rang clearer than the preachy notes of its plot on pharmaceutical corporations. Catch a Fire fails to wrestle its political message into the backseat where it belongs, and lets it suppress the more personal tale that would otherwise inspire its message of freedom.
Derek Luke plays Patrick Chamusso, a young family man working at the Secunda oil refinery in South Africa. It's 1980 and South Africa's 25 million blacks are tied down by the Apartheid and the ANC liberation group is rising in power. Patrick wants nothing to do with liberation, only wanting to make a comfortable home for his wife and two daughters. But through a complicated sequence of events, Patrick's hands are falsely put to a terrorist bombing at the Secunda plant. He's done nothing wrong, but Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), the leader of South Africa's Anti-Terrorist group, is convinced of his participation in the attack. The misunderstanding reaches boiling point when Patrick's wife is beaten and interrogated, causing his complacency with the apartheid to snap. He leaves his family and runs to Mozambique where he seeks out the ANC's recruitment headquarters. From there it's a cat and mouse game, with Nic Vos (which is, by the way, one of the most villainous names I can remember) and his steely-eyed glare chasing down the vengeful Chamusso.
Director Phillip Noyce is no stranger to such heated political fare as the South African apartheid. His previous two films were equally message-oriented: the adaptation of the Graham Greene novel The Quiet American, and the Australian film Rabbit-Proof Fence. And with Shawn Slovo, the son of the true South African rebel, Joe Slovo, penning the screenplay, Catch a Fire was bound to, at the very least, cause sparks (excuse the pun). It's ironic then, that with so much experience behind the picture, that Mr. Noyce and Mr. Slovo couldn't muster an apartheid South Africa infuriating enough to inspire us to believe in Patrick Chamusso's anger. Catch a Fire, oddly enough, plays it too safe. The two characters, Nic Vos and Patrick Chamusso, are filled in well enough-with family sub-plots and a wealth of character building sequences. But none of it pulls focus on the harsh realities of the apartheid and, thus, never plucks any of our heartstrings.
That's not to say Catch a Fire only blows smoke. Derek Luke and Tim Robbins are veritable powerhouses that drive their characters harder than the script ever tries. But performance is rarely enough and here it falls short. No matter how hard Derek Luke can clench his fist to the strumming ebbs of Bob Marley's reggae, we're still left listless and cold when we should be seething with anger. Rating: 2.5 out of 4
Sam Osborn
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
