Catch A Fire (2006) Movie Review

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Catch A Fire (2006) U.S. Cinema Release Date:

27^th Oct 2006

Catch A Fire (2006) U.K. Cinema Release Date:

23^rd Mar 2007

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Catch A Fire (2006) Synopsis:

Powerfully telling the story of a South African hero's journey to freedom, Catch a Fire is the new film from director Phillip Noyce (The Quiet American, Rabbit-Proof Fence). The political thriller takes place during the country's turbulent and divided times in the early 1980s, and in the new South Africa of today.

Derek Luke portrays real-life hero Patrick Chamusso. Patrick is a charming and loving husband to his wife Precious (Bonnie Henna), and a caring father to his two young daughters. He works as a foreman at the centrally located Secunda oil refinery, which is a symbol of South Africa's self-sufficiency at a time when the world was protesting the country's oppressive apartheid system. In his spare time, Patrick coaches a local boys' soccer team. Carefully toeing the hard line imposed on blacks by apartheid, Patrick is completely apolitical.

Academy Award winner Tim Robbins plays Nic Vos, a Colonel in the country's Police Security Branch. The shrewd and charismatic Vos strives to maintain order in volatile situations, which have become more and more frequent as the outlawed activist organization African National Congress (ANC) rallies blacks against apartheid. Vos is also concerned for the safety of his wife and two daughters. He and his family live a world away from the Chamusso family

...until the innocent Patrick comes under suspicion and is arrested (in June 1980) for sabotage of the Secunda oil refinery. His alibi is compromised, and Patrick is desperate to shield Precious from a past indiscretion and keep his job. But he is ill-prepared to withstand brutal interrogations by Vos' men. As Vos further insinuates himself into the lives of the Chamussos, to Patrick's shock and shame, Precious herself is jailed and tortured. Although he and Precious are soon released from custody, Patrick is stunned into action and completely reorients his sense of self and purpose. He leaves his family to join up with the ANC.

Becoming a rebel fighter and political operative, Patrick is radicalized on behalf of his people and his country. He ultimately envisions a formidable and dangerous follow-up strike against the Secunda refinery, risking his own life and future. Change must and will come, for Patrick and his family, and for South Africa itself.

Catch A Fire (2006) Review:

Phillip Noyce is probably one of my favorite under-appreciated directors working today. He has an impressive resume with directing films like �Patriot Games�, �Rabbit-Proof Fence�, �Dead Calm�, �The Bone Collector� and �The Quiet American�.

With �Rabbit-Proof Fence�, Noyce began a trilogy of films that explores oppression in three different corners of the globe. In �Fence�, he explored the Australian Aboriginal. In the �Quiet American� he explored the Vietnamese people during the Vietnam War. And finally he explores apartheid in South Africa with �Catch a Fire�.

Of this trilogy of films, �Catch a Fire� is definitely the weakest of the three.

The film follows the struggle of Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) who does all he can to stay out of the conflict that is ravaging his country. Patrick works at one of the largest oil refineries in South Africa which is also being the target of rebelling terrorists. But like all looming conflicts, Patrick is pulled in kicking and screaming as he is accused of being a terrorist by a government interrogator Nic Vos (Tim Robbins).

After he is eventually released, Patrick struggles with the devotion to stay out of his country turmoil and decides to leave his family and do something about it. Patrick journeys to Mozambique to join the resistance and free South Africa from oppression.

The film is based on the true life story of Patrick Chamusso and it is an epic one. When it comes to films about apartheid it is hard to forget the films that have come before it like the classic �Cry Freedom� from 1987.

The film�s story is an unrelenting journey and has solid direction from Phillip Noyce. You also have a very interesting, demanding and poignant performance from Derek Luke as the film�s central hero.

But then there is the performance from Tim Robbins. I don�t care what anyone else says, Tim Robbins doesn�t have any range as an actor. Still his best performance to date is 1992�s �The Player�.

I know he won an Oscar in 2003 for �Mystic River� and has done other credible performances in such films as �Jacob�s Ladder� and �The Shawshank Redemption�. But what a lot of people seem to forget is the disastrous performances he turned out in films like �AntiTrust�, �Mission to Mars� and �Nothing to Lose�.

I think his Oscar win in 2003 had a lot more to do with Eastwood�s direction than the performance of Robbins. I guess as I look back on that performance I never felt even then that Robbins could dig deep enough to become the character he is trying to play.

In �Catch a Fire�, Robbins�s character of Nic Vos is supposed to be this narcissistic, sociopathic interrogator who has two distinct sides to his personality as interrogator and family man. He is described as �this beast of a man� by Chamusso�s character but we never really feel any intensity or psychosis from the man. The character should have almost been a sort of Jekyll and Hyde type. Because of this lack of understanding and performance of the film�s central villain, the film suffers immensely. Instead all we get is Robbins trying to look intense but I swear all I see in the man�s eyes is fear that he is living some other man�s career. I think Robbins should stick to directing.

�Catch a Fire� as a whole is a forgettable film and it really is a shame.

So Says the Soothsayer