Catch a Fire

last updated 8 January 2015

Patrick Chamusso was an apolitical foreman of an oil refinery in apartheid-era South Africa when he was arrested and accused of planning a terrorist attack on his own facility, said Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. After being tortured, the newly radicalized Chamusso joined the militant African National Congress. Based on a true story, Catch a Fire is 'œa powerful thriller rooted in a continent's recent history of violent oppression,' said Steven Rea in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Derek Luke, who portrays Chamusso, is that 'œrare actor who can convey profound inner conflict with just a look in his eye.' His nemesis is Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), a manipulative Boer police colonel and family man who sees the ANC as a threat to white rule and privilege. 'œThat's why it's such a drag' to report that Fire isn't a better film than it is, said Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com. The screenplay is by Shawn Slovo, whose father once headed up the ANC's military wing. Though the performances of Luke and Robbins are immensely convincing and nuanced, the movie itself 'œfeels rushed and truncated.' In his haste, director Phillip Noyce simply sweeps past the deeper emotional issues that both blacks and whites had to face in the twilight of apartheid.

Rating: PG-13