Jamie passion and passionfruit!

This film is almost a documentary in parts and then smack on top is a love story which I found to be a detracting factor.  After all, the main value of the movie is to recount the story of the Truth and Reconciliation commission in South Africa following the downfall of the regime of apartheid. We learn some very interesting things about the black concept of dealing with what happened in the 34 years before the film.  The film is based on the book by an Afrikaans reporter who covers the hearings which crossed the country for the South African Broadcasting Corporation.   Juliette Binoche plays the character based on this journalist, Anna Malan.  As ever Binoche is very watchable and mines a range of sentiments deep inside.  Samuel Jackson plays the American reporter who plays the ignorant Everyman to whom everything has to be explained.  What is more he is black!  Thinks he should understand Africa but realises that he doesn’t and the Africans don’t think he does either.  And what’s more he has an affair with Anna and witnesses first hand murder in a township of black against black! It is all a bit contrived somehow as are some of the scenes in which meaningful messages come out in the dialogue.  So, this adds up to a very difficult film to assess.  A little too dramatized for Hollywood for my liking in places but undoubtedly rich in individual scenes, performances and information in others.  Perhaps it was more a subject for a mini-series than a film and that may explain its lack of cinema success worldwide.  Director John Boorman is a sensitive veteran who has tried to do the best job by all but I have always doubted a bit his quality as a director.  There was always something missing between good and great.  And perhaps it is his rather conservative treatment that ultimately leaves me feeling a bit cold despite the undoubted good intentions of cast and crew.

¶¶¶+