| A Waste |
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| written by talltale |
July 29, 2005 - 4:55 PM PDT |
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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What a shame that IN MY COUNTRY is not a better film because South Africa's "Truth & Reconciliation Hearings" were an important part of world history, and of our continuing need for some alternative to vengeance and the eye-for-an-eye philosophy. The film is neither as bad as many critics contend nor anywhere near as good as defenders such as Armond White of the NY Press pretend by--as usual--making good intentions more important than bad results.
The film is such an unappetizing stew of absurd ingredients (few of which are used with any degree of believability)--social commentary, silly love story, nitwit attempts at suspense, and an "international" cast--that, instead of nourishing us, the movie leaves us hungry with a bad aftertaste. Yes, the testimony given by the blacks (even one of the whites) is shocking and moving, but a documentary could have captured this so much better, and done so without all the extraneous elements.
It does not help the situation that the DVD comes with no English subtitles, since the accents range from Juliette Binoche's thick French to Afrikaner and faux-Afrikaner), South African native, American (via Samuel Jackson) and more. I admit to not always understanding what was going on, even with my constant use of the "reverse" button to replay a scene. This is extremely frustrating when you are trying harder than usual to connect with a movie, but "In My Country" is just bad enough that--finally--it didn't seem to matter. A major opportunity wasted, this movie is not one of director John Boorman's better efforts. |
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