“Catch A Fire” (Focus Features)
Never Catches Fire
“Catch A Fire” is a film based on a true story of Apartheid in South Africa, and the struggle to liberate the blacks who live there. It is a heroic story that shows the evolution of one man from being apolitical to being a revolutionary. Still the way the story is told there is no dramatic tension and the story simply never catches fire.
Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) live in South Africa with his wife Precious (Bonnie Henna) and their two daughters. He is not a wealthy man but by South African standards he is middle class. He works at the local factory and spends his free time coaching soccer.
It is a dangerous time in the history of South Africa as there are rebels who are trying to throw off the yoke of the current government. The police call these people terrorists and are subject to arresting people on the smallest suspicion they are somehow involved with the rebels.
One day while Chamusso is off with his soccer team an explosion occurs at his factory. Patrick is arrested by Policeman Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) and brutally interrogated. Eventually his wife Precious is also arrested. This experience changes Patrick from a life of pacifism to one of rebellion.
All of this sounds more dramatic than it actually is on screen. Somehow the tension and terror of the ruling political regime in South Africa does not come across. Plus the total character of Chamusso remains elusive. Audiences can understand the reason for the changes his life undergoes, but they never feel the emotions behind them.
Vos too is never understood. Is he a good man fulfilling the terrible duties he feels he has to do Or is he a bad man who has some good traits within him The line of his character is never explained. Plus a climactic scene between him and Patrick is botched badly by the film’s director, Phillip Noyce.
Derek Luke is very good as Patrick, and Henna is even better as his wife. Robbins also adds power with his portrayal of Vos. Still their actions and acting can’t make the movie “catch fire.” The story just smolders with intensity but never breaks into a flaming drama.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
“Catch A Fire” is a movie about an important subject, and heroic people. It should be magnetizing in its intensity, but it instead keeps the viewer detached. What is wrong with the movie is hard to pinpoint, but something that should be there just isn’t.
I scored “Catch A Fire” a flameless 4 out of 10.
