Susan Granger’s review of “Catch a Fire” (Focus Features)
Examining whether the end justifies the means, this latest anti-apartheid drama, based on real people and events that took place a quarter-century ago, explores the thin line between a political terrorist and a freedom-fighter.
Patrick Charmusso (Derek Luke) is an apolitical Secunda oil refinery foreman who has a beautiful wife, aptly named Precious (Bonnie Henna), two daughters and a mother to support. When he’s confronted by Nic Vos (Tim Robbins), a vicious colonel in the Police Security Branch, about an act of sabotage committed by terrorists, he cannot provide a truthful alibi without disclosing that he’s having an extra-marital affair. As a result, he’s unjustly accused of espionage and subjected to brutal, state-sanctioned torture; the life that he once enjoyed is over.
Having survived that excruciating experience, he emerges radicalized, ready to join a resistance cell training in Mozambique that’s part of the African National Congress. The next time he’s arrested for sabotage, he’s guilty-as-charged, serving 10 years of a 24-year prison sentence, alongside Nelson Mandela, until his release under a 1991 amnesty.
Written by Shawn Slovo, daughter of South African activist Joe Slovo, and directed by Philip Noyce (“Rabbit-Proof Fence,” “The Quiet American”), it favors cross-cutting speed over specificity, while drawing obvious parallels to contemporary insurgents. As Charmusso and his cohorts yell “Kill the Boer soldier!” it’s hard not to think that somewhere in the Middle East, militants are yelling, “Kill the American soldier!”
On the other hand, Derek Luke (“Friday Night Lights,” “Antwone Fisher”) and Tim Robbins deliver chilling, psychologically-convincing performances that transcend their material. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Catch a Fire” is a conscience-themed 6, revealing a wrong man trapped in the wrong place at the wrong time.
