Review: Invictus (with trailer)
By Nigel Powlson
AS Morgan Freeman is the natural choice to play Nelson Mandela on screen and Clint Eastwood is about as reliable as film-makers come, Invictus should have been a guaranteed banker.
The fact that after 133mins of rather reverential drama it leaves you cold, must rank as a major disappointment.
Eastwood, despite knocking on the door of 80, has been churning out a quality film a year for the past decade but, maybe overawed by his subject, he drops the ball here.
Invictus tells the true story of South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup triumph solidly but you feel that this could, and really should, have been better.
The film starts with newly-elected Nelson Mandela (Oscar-nominated Freeman) desperately trying to unite a country tortured by its apartheid past. His mantra is forgiveness and when he sees his political allies looking for revenge on their old white oppressors he begs for tolerance.
The Springboks rugby team are a symbol of the bad days, revered by white South Africans but hated by their black countrymen who support anyone who plays against them.
But South Africa has been awarded the Rugby World Cup and Mandela sees a chance to unite the nation behind the team.
So he calls team captain Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon) and urges him to help him unite the rainbow nation through sport.
Freeman's own natural dignity and gravitas make him ideal for the role of the president but he's not asked to do much more than smile and act saintly.
The screenplay by Anthony Peckham puts the president centre stage but gives him no depth – his 30 years in jail, his marital problems and alienation from his family, and South Africa's internal political struggles are all barely sketched in.
The detail is all there in Mandela's autobiography, The Long Walk To Freedom, but in Invictus he remains the man we see on the newsreels.
That would be fine if the film had been seen exclusively from Pienaar's point of view and Mandela had been the inspiration rather than the meat of the movie.
But although Damon (also Oscar-nominated) slots comfortably into the scrums and looks the part, he's saddled with nodding and looking grateful whilst Morgan makes grandiose speeches.
The rugby action works better than football ever has in the movies and even manages to make a World Cup final where no-one scored a try and the most talented team in the world lost, look exciting.
But the dialogue exchanges between the players provide the most cringeworthy scenes.
For once, Eastwood isn't up to the material and you feel that there must be a better Mandela movie that sill needs to be made.
INVICTUS
CERTIFICATE: 15
RUNNING TIME: 133 mins
STARTS: Today at Cinema De Lux in Derby from March 5 at Quad in Derby,
RATING: 3/5
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