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Catch A Fire

Set in June 1980 in South Africa, Derek Luke stars as Patrick Chamusso – a foreman at the local oil refinery.  In this segregated world of Apartheid, his friends pick on him for being an apolitical sell out who is too eager to please “The Man”, but Patrick is doing alright with a decent job, some responsibility, a nice family, and the time he needs to coach the local boys’ soccer team.  One day, Patrick’s soccer team makes the playoffs, and he takes an unexcused absence from work to accompany them to the tournament, but it turns out to be a horrible day to play hooky. 

While he is away, anti-Apartheid fighters plant an explosive and detonate it at the plant.  A dreaded investigator with the South African Police Security Branch, Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), is called in to find the people responsible, his eye quickly turns to Patrick and his flimsy alibi, and he will stop at nothing to break the young man.  

Will Patrick be held responsible for the attack?  Did he do it?  Can Patrick survive the torture?

Even though it is based on the life story of Chamusso, a major figure in the African National Congress, Catch A Fire quickly steers itself away from politics to become more of an action movie, but still has a fantastic performance from Luke to make up for it.   Director Phillip Noyce and writer Shawn Slovo seem to break Catch A Fire into two distinct movies – what happens before the arrest, and Chamusso’s reaction to it – which slightly disrupts the flow. 

The two parts need some more exposition in the middle to help us transition from the intense, horrific first part if the movie to the more James Bond-like second part.  Plus, it assumes everyone who goes to the movie is familiar with that time in South Africa’s history (which is probably true, but will not help the movie hold up throughout time, or help anyone who doesn’t understand why I ain’t gonna play Sun City).  However, the movie is one that will stand out this fall because of Luke’s performance.

After wowing us in Antwone Fisher a few years ago, Luke has grown as an actor to have the same kind of screen presence as Matt Damon. If he keeps putting in performances like this, we’ll upgrade him to Leonardo DiCaprio status.  Luke is fantastic as he shows us Chamusso’s reactions as his world falls apart.  He takes us through the fear, anger, and desire for revenge Chamusso experiences, while also showing his love for family, and questionable decisions he has made as well as effortlessly adopting the speech pattern and accent.  Best of all, he has the right intensity, and lack of it, in each scene.   

Robbins has the harder job of bringing something interesting to a quieter, evil character, but also finds his moments to show everything Vos feels as he faces a majority population that hates him, and, he worries, wants to hurt him and his family.  It’s hard to have any kind of sympathy for Vos, but Robbins comes close, and his performance might be better explained as making us understand the character’s motivation. 

Catch A Fire is solid movie with some flaws.   

3 Waffles (Out Of 4)

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