Here’s another movie about South Africa, this time more realistic than District 9. It stars Nelson Mandela and tells his role in the 1995 rugby world cup won by South Africa.
It doesn’t deal with all other political problems Mandela dealt with, at least not extensively. It instead focuses on the role that rugby had in trying to unite the new nation under Mandela.
It’s an inspirational sports movie that revolves around Mandela and partly around the captain of the SA team. Throughout the movie we see many rugby scenes, but it’s only in the final that we follow a match from the start to finish.
Morgan Freeman as Mandela was a clear casting choice, even though sometimes he slips out of the SA accent, he’s still very good. Matt Damon was also good, though he has a smaller role (his accent was better).
It’s a fine movie that I enjoyed, but it doesn’t go beyond that. This story had the potential to be a masterpiece, but it’s missing something. It almost is afraid of going deeper into the issues, or the characters.
Rating: 3 Stars